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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22856113">I Can't Give You Much, But I Can Give You This</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyggeScribbles/pseuds/HyggeScribbles'>HyggeScribbles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Frozen (Disney Movies), Frozen (US 2010), Frozen - Anderson-Lopez &amp; Lopez/Lee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Kristanna, Light Angst, Mild Smut, Slow Burn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 18:41:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>30,526</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22856113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyggeScribbles/pseuds/HyggeScribbles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Park Ranger Kristoff Bjorgman just wants to get home to his dog before the next snowstorm takes a dump all over Kenai Fjords National Park (where he works) and Seward, Alaska (where he lives). Of course some tourist has to come along and wreck all his plans.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anna &amp; Kristoff (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney), Kristoff &amp; Sven (Disney: Frozen)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>105</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>106</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                He just wanted to get home before the storm hit, that’s all. Was it so much to ask? Apparently, because here was a Subaru SUV with its hazards flashing in the scant light left of the day, jammed onto the shoulder of Exit Glacier Road, which was closed. And had been all season. He switched on the light bar and stopped in the middle of the deserted road, leaving the engine running, and slapped his hat onto his head. He moved quickly through the cold to the driver’s window and rapped on the glass, noticing the windows were fogged. Great.</p><p>                The door popped open and a tumble of red briefly appeared before being jerked back into the car.</p><p>                “Ugh, damn this thing!” a voice muttered, and it took Ranger Bjorgman a moment to realize what he’d seen was a woman with fierce red hair attempt to open her car door and step out, before her seatbelt did its job and snapped her back into her seat. The woman jerked herself out of the restraints and a moment later landed against the open car door, catching herself and pretending she meant to do that.</p><p>                “Hello, Officer –”<br/>                “Ranger.”<br/>                “Oh, right, excuse me. Ranger Bee-george-man –” she was trying to pronounce the name on his badge and slaughtering it with extreme prejudice.<br/>                “Bee-yourg-muhn.”<br/>                “What you said,” she acceded, attempting to smooth her hair and clothes and entire flustered attitude. “I bet you’re wondering why I’m here.”</p><p>                “Considering this road is closed for the winter and it’s currently – ” he checked his watch, mainly for show, “mid-February and we’re expected to get three feet of snow within the next 12 hours, and this road leads to nothing but a glacier, yes, I was wondering that.”</p><p>                “Well yes, I can explain,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering. “I rented this piece of junk in Anchorage and drove down to stay at one of the cabins by the glacier, but the stupid thing broke down!” The auto received a kick to the door panel before she swore again and bent down to rub the scuff she had just made off of it. “I’ve tried everything but I can’t get it to go, and I’ve been sitting here trying to get help but then my phone died, and…” she shrugged, flapping her hands in the air, nearly dropping her dead phone in the process. As if on cue, the interior lights died in the car and the hazard lights quit flashing.</p><p>                “Aaaaand now the battery’s dead, too,” Ranger Bjorgman deadpanned, feeling a tension headache spring to life behind his eyes. He had to stop at the store to stock up on supplies in case they were snowed in for a few days – the last few snowstorms had stalled out over them and he wanted to be prepared. Besides, his malamute, Sven, was waiting for him. How could he get rid of this tourist ASAP?</p><p>                “Look, I hate to bother you,” the woman said, oblivious to the fact that she was, in fact, doing nothing but bothering him, “but could you give me a ride?”</p><p>                “To where, exactly, ma’am?”</p><p>                “To the cabin I rented!” She leaned back into the rental to gather her things and Ranger Kristoff Bjorgman suddenly found himself staring at a shapely rear clad in jeans. The woman was rooting for something in the car. Her face popped back into view a moment later and he hurriedly looked into the gloomy, fast-moving clouds overhead. The brainless tourist opened the rear hatch of the rented SUV and was struggling to remove two large suitcases. Without thinking, Kristoff took them from her and set them on the road.</p><p>                “Wait, what are we doing again?” he asked.</p><p>                “You’re going to take me to the cabin I rented by the glacier,” she explained, shoving a knitted hat in the weirdest shade of hot pink he’d ever seen over her messy braids. But it seemed to work on her, he thought, before going back to the words coming out of her mouth.</p><p>                “The roads are closed this time of year. When there <em>isn’t</em> a snowstorm coming in, you have to ski or take a snowmobile to the cabin, and when there <em>is</em> a storm coming in, like now, then your reservation is canceled.” The woman’s eyes and mouth went wide and Kristoff braced himself for a stream of verbal abuse before something even worse happened: her eyes began to fill with tears.</p><p>“What? No! You can’t – I need – I made the reservation three days ago, please!” she begged, clutching at his jacket. “I don’t have anywhere else to go.” What went through his mind was a mix of wordless howling and expletives, but what came out was:</p><p>                “We’ll find you something.” <em>Dammit, mouth!</em> He cursed himself for speaking before thinking, but it was too late now. Her misty eyes had cleared and instead pure joy took over her features, and she yanked him towards her, throwing her arms around him.</p><p>                “Thank you thank you thank you, you just saved my life!” she gushed, and he could feel her trembling against him. He held his arms straight out, unsure of what to do with them. A wind kicked up, blowing the coldest of the Arctic Circle into his face, and he could smell the snow on that gust. They had to move. But then she shivered against him and slipped her hands under his jacket and something in him overloaded, rooting him to the spot.</p><p>                “Sorry, it’s just so cold here,” she murmured, looking up at him with an apologetic look. Her eyes were such a distinct blue, so light with a splash of green in them, and the cinnamon freckles dusted across her nose were just…</p><p>                “Well, it is Alaska in winter,” he responded, and wondered if that was really the best he could manage when a pretty – if reckless – woman was clinging to him and leeching the heat from his body with hands so cold he could feel them through his shirt and thermal undershirt. She laughed and broke away from him, gathering her things from the dead SUV.</p><p>                “Sorry, I’m from LA, cold is under 65 degrees for me.” <em>Well that explained her sheer idiocy</em>, he thought, and moved to open the tailgate of his Park Services Chevy Tahoe. She wheeled her two suitcases to him and he tossed them into the back, grunting, “What exactly did you pack?”</p><p>                “Well, all the jeans and long-sleeved shirts I had, obviously. And books,” she called, her voice carrying on the wind. He looked around the side of his vehicle and saw her approaching with two armfuls of grocery bags. “There’s a few more bags in the backseat, can you get them for me?” She smiled apologetically again as she finished moving in to his home away from home, and like an idiot, he did what he was told.</p><p>                He was fetching the last of the paper shopping bags from her Subaru when he turned around and yelled. She was standing right behind him, happily munching on something, and her lips were turning blue from the cold. “M&amp;Ms?” she offered, brandishing a family sized bag. A fat snowflake wafted between them and stuck to her cheek.</p><p>                “Wait, is it snowing?” she gushed, nearly spilling her candy across the deserted road. Never mind that the state was already covered in snow, he was now watching a grown woman lose her mind because frozen water was falling from the sky. “I’ve never been in actual snowfall before!”</p><p>                “That’s great and all, but we need to get moving,” he grumbled, prodding her in the back to get her moving. The grocery bag in that hand swung and smacked her right across her bottom and she scooted towards his Tahoe.</p><p>                “Okay, okay, no need to get pushy,” she groused, and clambered into the passenger seat. He loaded the last of the shopping bags and shut all of the doors, then caught her eye through the windshield and gestured that he was going back to her car. She shrugged and gave a thumbs up before pouring an ungainly amount of M&amp;Ms straight from the bag into her mouth.</p><p>                “Oh my god,” he muttered, and marched quickly back to the Subaru. The snow was moving more quickly now, bringing with it a biting wind. Looked like the storm would be ahead of schedule. Kristoff pulled the key from the ignition and removed the rental contract from the passenger seat where she had left it, locking the car after him.</p><p>                “We can call your rental agency later, right now we have to get going. Storm’s coming,” he explained, turning his car around. They would just have time to pick up some necessities from the store before it got dangerous.</p><p>                “Great! Where to?” She offered him the bag of candy again and he hesitated before grabbing a handful. She peered into the bag, disappointed. “Geez, man-hands,” she muttered.</p><p>                “I’ve got to stop by the store to get a few things before the storm hits, we may be snowed in for a few,” he explained around a mouthful of chocolate, putting the car in gear and heading for town. The annoying, candy-gobbling tourist helped herself to the climate controls, setting the heater on its hottest setting, blowing at maximum velocity.</p><p>                “And then where?” She carefully sealed the bag, then tossed it over her shoulder into one of her grocery bags.</p><p>                “And then I get to apologize to Sven for leaving him home alone all day, again, and make him a nice dinner to make up for it.”</p><p>                “Sven? Is he your husband? You didn’t tell me you were married!” she enthused, elbowing him in the ribs.</p><p>                “What? No, I – Sven is my dog!”</p><p>                “Even better! You didn’t tell me you had a dog!” This time he was slapped on the shoulder and he was almost feeling petty enough to charge her with assault. Why did this strange woman move into his car, and why did she keep hitting him? More importantly, why did he let her?</p><p>                “I don’t even know your name, why would I tell you my marital status?” he snapped, wiping a hand down his weary face. A gust of wind rocked the car and a thick flurry of snow obscured his view for a few seconds. He slowed his speed out of an abundance of caution.</p><p>                “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I’m Anna, Anna Aren.” He could see a hand hovering in the periphery of his vision, and it was just staying there, waiting, so he sighed in frustration and quickly reached over to shake it.</p><p>                “Kristoff – holy god, your hands are cold!”</p><p>                “Well I can’t wear mittens while driving, can I?” Anna countered, shoving her hands between her knees.</p><p>                “You’re not driving,” he observed.</p><p>                “No, I mean earlier. Before. I took off my mittens to drive and tossed them onto the other seat and then forgot about them after I broke down and why does it matter right now?”</p><p>                “It doesn’t? I was just – look,” he sighed in frustration and squinted through the windshield. “The weather’s turning fast and I don’t know if I have the time to get what I need from the store before the storm’s on top of us.”</p><p>                “And find a place for me to stay,” she murmured, staring at her hands in her lap.</p><p>                “What?”</p><p>                “I don’t have anywhere to go, remember?” Right. That. Dammit.</p><p>                “I, yeah, of course, sorry, I was just…” <em>Just being an idiot and thinking only of myself</em>, he thought, giving himself a mental kick in the ass.</p><p>                “How far is it to your place?”</p><p>                “About fifteen minutes out? I’m on the edge of town, there’s no accommodations on my side though.”</p><p>                “Well…” She sighed. “We could trade? Well, not trade, but come to an agreement? I mean, feel free to say no, but I have a car full of food here and nowhere to go, and you have no food but a warm home, and it sounds like we could help each other. So, I mean…” He had reached the end of the road, literally, and came to a stop.</p><p>                “What are you saying?” Kristoff asked, confused. She sighed again, frustrated at his obtuseness.</p><p>                “I’m asking you to take me home with you, you pillock!” A strong gust of wind and snow rocked the SUV and she cast a worried glance out the windshield. “Please. I’m cold and hungry and homeless and scared and I just want to take a hot bath and drink an entire bottle of wine and maybe not feel so hopeless for a while.” Her rant came out in one long breath and at the end she was nearly hyperventilating. He stared at her, and in the dim lights of the dash, he saw a tear slip down her cheek. No, dammit, not tears, anything but tears. She sniffed loudly and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. <em>Damn these human emotions</em>, he thought, shaking his head.</p><p>                “Are you allergic to dogs?” he asked wearily, and she perked up.</p><p>                “Um, excuse me, I run a dog bakery!” she exclaimed proudly, before deflating again. “Ran. I <em>ran</em> a dog bakery. A very successful one.”</p><p>                “What happened?”</p><p>                “It’s a long, ugly story involving an ugly person,” she said, fiddling with her hands in her lap again. “I need all the wine for that story.”</p><p>                “Sorry, I don’t have wine at home. Only bourbon.”</p><p>                “That’s okay, I brought my own! I could use some right now,” she said, unbuckling her seat belt and rooting in the back seat.</p><p>                “Absolutely not, in your seat and buckled now!” he snapped in his best ranger voice. She immediately complied and he was secretly proud of himself. “No drinking before dinner, it’s bad enough keeping my floors clean with a housebound malamute. I don’t need you messing them too.”</p><p>                “A malamute!” Anna gushed, pulling on her braids. “I cannot wait, I am gonna love your dog so much. Can I bake him a cake?”</p><p>                “A what, a cake? Excuse me?”</p><p>                “A cake! Remember, I ran a dog bakery. I’m a baker for dogs. Sven is gonna love me, just wait.”</p><p>                “Baker for dogs,” Kristoff muttered, turning on his right turn signal. “How’s your baking for humans?”</p><p>                “Oh, don’t be selfish.” She dismissed him with a wave of her hand.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>We switch over to Anna's point of view to get her take on the lone Park Ranger (and his dog)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>CW for alcohol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                Ranger Be-your-g-man (as Anna called him in her head) lived in a surprisingly Victorian-looking two story house at the end of a road. As in, the road literally disappeared where his house appeared. It was hard to get a feel for what part of the town they drove through to get there, but it seemed so open and yet small. Nothing like she ever experienced in Southern California. She was also grateful he had an attached garage, because that was kind of a novelty where she was from, and she was just starting to thaw from the hours sitting in a dead car and arguing with him in the cold. Even walking twenty feet in this weather in her jeans and sweater and nylon jacket would have made her freeze solid again.</p><p>                “Let’s get the lights on and turn up the heat first, then we’ll get your things,” he advised, and she nodded and followed. The two car garage also held a well-used Suburban that looked to be from the 70s, and she guessed that was his normal people car, what he drove when he wasn’t in uniform and rudely canceling tourist’s reservations without warning. He had closed the roll-up garage door with a remote before they left the car, but it was still icy cold in the garage. Maybe running away to Alaska wasn’t the best idea in the world, it was easy to forget that other places actually experienced seasons.</p><p>                She was lost in her own thoughts until a large bark echoed through the garage, and around the hulking form of Ranger B. she saw a flash of tawny fur. He struggled to hold back the dog, who was doing his best to knock his master off his feet. The ranger pushed his dog into the house enough so that Anna could step into the room with them.</p><p>                “I know, buddy, I know, way later than I promised,” the man chuckled, bear-hugging his dog. Sven rested his paws on the ranger’s chest and sniffed him eagerly, looking for something. “Sorry, buddy, I couldn’t get to the store in time to pick up more carrots.” Sven whined and dropped to the floor before letting out a short howl. Anna couldn’t help but laugh, she’d never seen a dog look so indignant before. Sven’s head snapped to look at her – he hadn’t even noticed her in his rush to greet his owner.</p><p>                “Hi, buddy, I’m Anna,” she greeted him softly, holding out her hand. He looked at her skeptically before glancing up at his roommate.</p><p>                “She’s the reason I couldn’t get to the store,” Ranger B. explained, waving a hand at her. Sven snorted dismissively at Anna.</p><p>                “You know, it’s too bad you taught your dog your rudeness, because I brought carrots with me and I <em>was</em> going to share them, but now…” Sven perked up, looking at her with interest, and slowly approached. “Would you like some carrots?” A tentative tail wag was her answer. “You know, if you’re really nice to me and let me get some cuddles in, I might even bake you some cheesy carrot treats,” she suggested, and Sven barked once and came close enough to lick her hand. “There we go,” she beamed, and rubbed behind his ears. She could feel the ranger staring at her in disbelief and fought to hide her grin.</p><p>                “Well, would it be rude of me to change out of my work clothes before dinner?” he asked, taking off his hat and jacket and hanging them on a rack next to the garage door.</p><p>                “Without helping me get my things from the car first? Absolutely.” He whined and rolled his eyes and Anna could clearly see where Sven got his attitude from. “Oh, I forgot, very important question: do you have a bathtub?”</p><p>                “Yes, I have a bathtub,” he groused, and went back to the garage to bring her things in. She followed.</p><p>                “Great! So just show me where I’ll be staying and I’m gonna get a nice hot bath in before making you boys the best dinner of your lives.” She could tell he was cranky and only whatever societal politeness Americans were still raised with kept him from really telling her off, but she was confident a good hot meal would win him over. She just had to get warm enough to function again before she could knock his pants off. Socks! Knock his socks off. <em>Nice Freudian slip there, dingbat</em>, she thought, rolling her eyes at herself. Geez, get rescued by one broad-shouldered guy in uniform and her mind just falls right out of her head and into the gutter. Like she didn’t have other things to be worrying about…</p><p>                “Are you done talking to yourself?” His voice cut through her thoughts.</p><p>                “Sorry, what?” She found herself standing in a sparsely furnished small bedroom and he was panting from lugging her suitcases.</p><p>                “I said, ‘are you done talking to yourself?’ You were so busy muttering under your breath that I don’t even think you know where you are.” She felt her cheeks flush.</p><p>                “I don’t talk to myself, but yes, where are we?” He wiped a hand across his face again and she could hear the soft <em>skritch</em> of his calloused hand meeting stubble. He moved behind her and grabbed her shoulders, steering her.</p><p>                “This,” he said, piloting her in front of the double bed, “is your bed. This,” he moved her into the hallway and aimed her at a closed door, “is the bathroom. With your precious bathtub. This,” aiming her at another door across the landing, “is my room, which you won’t need, and those,” he said, turning her to face the stairs, “are stairs. Don’t fall down them. Okay?”</p><p>                “Okay, geez!” How were his hands that big? They covered her entire shoulders and upper arms.</p><p>                “Go take your bath,” he huffed, and went downstairs.</p><p> </p><p>                Ready to face the world after a bath, or at least the two empty stomachs downstairs, Anna bounced into the kitchen to see her grocery bags neatly lined up on the counter and Sven watching her intently from a big dog bed against the wall.</p><p>                “Hey buddy, where’s your dad?” she asked, putting the groceries away. The fridge had half a block of cheese, an empty carton of milk, an almost-empty carton of orange juice, and three bottles of lager in it. He hadn’t been kidding about being out of food. The freezer was even worse, housing only empty ice cube trays. <em>Good grief, looks like we’re rescuing each other</em>, she thought, and got to work.</p><p>                Anna was grating cheese and singing to herself, two pots on the stove burbling away and the oven preheating, when she heard Sven chuff softly behind her. “Okay, one more handful and then I’m really cutting you off, you’ll spoil your dinner,” she said, and turned to see the ranger-turned-normal guy watching her with a small lopsided smile on his face. He’d traded his olive drab and khaki for jeans and a very comfy looking flannel shirt, and his hair was wet and brushed back from his forehead. Feeling suddenly self-conscious, she brushed the cheese from her hands and tried to put her hands in her back pockets before realizing she’d changed clothes after her bath and was wearing a skirt with tights instead of jeans.  <em>Well great, nowhere to put my stupid hands.</em></p><p>                “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. “I was going to see if you needed help?”</p><p>                “Nope, you’re not allowed to help,” she ordered, and moved to push him out of the kitchen/dining area. He didn’t budge, the audacity! “Okay, can you help me out here? I’m trying to push you to the couch.”</p><p>                “Can I at least get a drink before being banished from my own kitchen?”</p><p>                “What are you going to drink, there was only some beer in the fridge.”</p><p>                “Hey, really? I’ll have one of those.” He perked up and went to move around her, but she moved to block him.</p><p>                “If I don’t get my wine before dinner, you don’t get your beer before dinner. That’s the law,” she demanded, and placed her hands on his chest to stop him. He might have turned a little pink, it was hard to say, but he gave her a challenging look and started walking to the fridge. She braced her entire body against him and – slid effortlessly across the floor. And he laughed! The absolute nerve of some people. “No wine, no beer,” she huffed, and turned to brace her back against his chest. He kept going, and they were nearly at the fridge. In desperation, she propped her legs against the refrigerator door.</p><p>                “You really are ridiculous, you know,” he said, easily picking her up and setting her down away from the fridge.</p><p>                “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Now can I have some wine?” she panted.</p><p>                “One glass,” he promised, and reached into a cupboard to pull down a glass. “Sorry, I don’t have actual wine glasses.”</p><p>                “I will drink from a shoe if I have to, it has been <em>a day</em>,” she said, blowing some stray hairs from her face.</p><p>                “Tell me about it,” he muttered, and finally retrieved his long-awaited lager.  By the time he had opened his bottle, she was topping up her glass nearly to the brim. “Hey, I said a glass!”</p><p>                “And then you gave me this glass! You’ve got no one to blame but yourself.” He flapped his arms uselessly and tried to think of a comeback. Anna carefully held up her overfull glass of wine. “Cheers! We made it through the day.”</p><p>                “We made it.” He carefully toasted her glass and they each took a deep draught. He sighed in contentment, she hiccupped and covered her mouth.</p><p>                “Okay, now get lost. Dinner’s in twenty,” she waved a hand, shooing him away, and this time he was decent enough to listen.</p><p> </p><p>                He seemed to be really involved in a hockey game on TV, leaving her free to finish cooking, plate their food, and set the table. He really was a pain sometimes, but he was nice enough to put a roof over her head in a strange place where she didn’t know a soul, and his dog was to die for, so it was really the least she could do. It wasn’t until she heard the most ungodly snore that Anna realized that he’d fallen asleep.</p><p>                Creeping around the couch to look at him, Anna was struck by how nice he looked when he wasn’t glowering at her under a ranger’s hat. His hair had dried and was flopping over his forehead in a way she much preferred over that slick he’d combed it into after his shower, and he just looked much more peaceful and relaxed than he had ever been awake. Maybe being a park ranger really was that stressful. Or maybe – maybe <em>she</em> was that stressful to be around? Her thoughts were a little sloshy because she may have snuck a refill on her wine when he wasn’t looking and she hadn’t eaten anything except those M&amp;Ms all day today and it’s just been a helluva week and she just wanted one person in her life, in the whole world, to not be sick of her and think she was too much and hate her. She didn’t realize she was kneeling on the couch next to him, sobbing quietly, and she really didn’t know what possessed her to bury her head in his chest, but he just had to not hate her.</p><p>                He snorted awake and she was vaguely aware of his hands on her shoulders, shaking her. “Anna? What’s wrong, what happened? Are you okay?”</p><p>                “I – I just really need you to not hate me,” she bawled, and reared back to look him in the eyes. He looked worried, and more than a little confused, but there didn’t seem to be any hate in there.</p><p>                “Hate you? Why would I hate you? What did you break?”</p><p>                “I didn’t break anything! I just – I had two glasses of wine, okay, and I promised one and I’m sorry I broke my promise to you, I really am.” She had trouble meeting his eyes but when she could finally manage to glance up, he looked like he was trying not to laugh.</p><p>                “Is that why you thought I’d hate you?” She nodded, snuffling.</p><p>                “I don’t hate you, okay?” She stared. “Okay? No hate.” She nodded, a small smile breaking out. “But I will need another beer to keep it even.”</p><p> </p><p>                Sven was still lapping at his empty plate, scooting it across the floor, and the no-longer-stranger-ranger leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh.</p><p>                “It was okay?” Anna asked, pouring the last of the wine from the bottle into her glass.</p><p>                “Distinctly okay,” he answered, reaching for his third beer. Her wadded up napkin hit him right on the nose. “Okay, okay, it was great, not gonna lie.”</p><p>                “Thank you, I poured my heart and soul into this meal,” she slurred happily, and could feel the wine glow radiating out from her entire body. Finally warm! So, so warm, and with a warm meal in her belly. And a lovely warm, fluffy dog now padding over and licking her hand, and a warm ranger person man giving her a warm look from his warm amber-colored eyes and – “Oh no!” she gasped.</p><p>                “What is it?”</p><p>                “I forgot your name, Ranger B.! I mean, your first name, I can’t call you Ranger Mr. Bjorgman forever.”</p><p>                “When have you ever called me that?”</p><p>                “Just now. And I’ll have to keep doing that forever, until we die of old age, because I forgot the one time you said it.”</p><p>                “You don’t remember it at all? You came home with a guy and you don’t remember his name?” Her mouth flew open into a shocked O.</p><p>                “Mr. Ranger Bjorgman, if I had pearls I would be clutching them!” she gasped, and he nearly spit out his beer. “I’m not like that. Really. I promise. I’ll pinky swear and everything!” Anna held out a hand, pinky finger extended, and he tried to push it away.</p><p>                “Relax, relax. If you ask nicely and promise not to laugh, I’ll tell you my name again. Even though I really love being called Ranger Mister.”</p><p>                “Don’t forget Mr. Ranger, too, I’m partial to that one.” Anna’s pinky finger came at him again. “I salmon-ly swear to not laugh when you reveal the universe’s greatest secret: your name.” Her face went into what she hoped was her most serious and solemn look and he reached over to slide her glass of wine away from her.</p><p>                “You’re drunk,” he whispered.</p><p>                “I know,” she whispered back. “But at least I’m a nice drunk!”</p><p>                “This is true,” he conceded, and finished his beer. “Now brace yourself for the universe’s greatest mystery.” Anna clutched the table. “It’s Kristoff.” Anna’s eyes grew wide and a realization hit her. He looked relieved – until she reached over and flicked his nose.</p><p>                “Krist-on!” She flicked his nose the opposite direction. “Krist-off!” His face soured.</p><p>                “Okay, that’s enough from you,” he groused and stood up, gathering the dishes. She could tell he was mad at her.</p><p>                “Okay no, wait, I’m sorry, please,” she pleaded, grabbing one of his arms. He looked down at her and it was obvious he was trying to stay neutral. She leapt up, the room swimming a little, to be more eye to eye with him, but why did he have to be so big and tall? “Come here.” She dragged him to the stairs, dirty plates still in his hand, and stepped onto the first riser. No, he was still tall. Geez! Riser number two. Yes! Now they were even. A hand went to each of his shoulders and she looked at how small her hands were compared to him, and thought they must feel like nothing more than a leaf landing on him.</p><p>                “I’m sorry, were you going to say something, or just stare at your hands?”</p><p>                “What? Yes, sorry,” she snapped back into the present, and clutched his face between her hands. “Kristoff. I’m sorry, I wasn’t making fun of your name. I like it! It suits you. You look like a Kristoff. Plus, you’re the only Kristoff I’ve ever met in my life, so congratulations! It’s so much better than being the fortieth Matt, or the sixteenth Sam. You’re special.” He studied her face closely before dropping his gaze. It was a little hard to focus because of her wine goggles, but he may have turned a little pink again.</p><p>                “I should wash these,” he sighed, and turned away.</p><p>                “And I should finish my wine,” she announced, fetching her glass.</p><p>                “You’ll regret it tomorrow morning,” he called over his shoulder.</p><p>                “I’ll be fine!” Carefully carrying her glass and his two empty beer bottles, she left her glass on the sink for him to wash and dropped the bottles in recycling.</p><p>                “You know –” Kristoff chuckled and started to speak before cutting himself off.</p><p>                “What?”</p><p>                “Nothing!” he said far too quickly, and focused every ounce of his attention on scrubbing a plate.</p><p>                “You have to tell me.”</p><p>                “No I don’t. Curiosity killed the cat, you know,” and she could see his cheeks were definitely turning red.</p><p>                “Satisfaction brought her back,” Anna replied, leaning against the counter next to him. “What? What? What what what what what what what what were you going to say what what –”</p><p>                “Oh my god, please stop.”</p><p>                “What what what I will when you tell me what you were going to say what what what what?”</p><p>                “Okay! Do you just annoy everyone into getting what you want?” Anna reeled as if she’d been slapped. He shut off the water and turned to her. “Anna, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have –”</p><p>                “No, you’re right,” she whispered, embarrassed that tears were coming up so fast and her lower lip was trembling. It was just – after all that had just happened, to meet someone new and annoy them to death too, it was too much. Alcohol is just a magnifying glass to whatever was already there, isn’t that what people say? It doesn’t bring out anything new, it just makes it all bigger.</p><p>                “No, I’m not.” She pulled her sleeves over her hands and used them to cover her eyes. It was so embarrassing to have a stranger watch her cry. He used a wet hand to gingerly push one of her hands away. She peeked at him with one eye. “You’re not annoying, I was just – I almost said something stupid and caught myself, and I’m embarrassed.”</p><p>                “Well now you really have to tell me,” she sniffed, and gave a watery laugh. “I’m embarrassed to have a stranger to see me cry, and do you know how many times that’s happened in the past week? Four times. I’m running on mortification at this point.” Her sleeves mopped her face and he tore off a paper towel and handed it to her.</p><p>                “I was just…” Kristoff wiped his hands off on his jeans and leaned against the sink. “I was going to say that I thought you were going to kiss me on the stairs,” he mumbled.</p><p>                “And you would have let me?” she gasped.</p><p>                “What? I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking,” he floundered, cheeks red by this point. She definitely had it in her to relish this moment.</p><p>                “So I missed my chance, huh? Guess I’ll never have another one.”</p><p>                “No?” He looked confused. She drew herself a glass of water.</p><p>                “Nope. I had my chance and I blew it. Now it’s all on your shoulders, Ranger Kristoff. If there’s going to be any kissing, it has to come from you and you alone. Goodnight.” Anna made for the stairs, and when she was halfway up, she heard him mutter, “What just happened?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. Yeah, I'm an American who uses "draught" instead of "draft" for drinking. If you don't like it, time travel to when I was little and knock Charlotte Brontë out of my small, pretentious hands.</p><p>2. Cheesy carrot treats for dogs are an actual thing, and they are safe for dogs! Google it, you'll find recipes.</p><p>3. "I salmon-ly swear" should become a thing. Salmon hatcheries are a tourist attraction in Alaska! I should know, I bought the t-shirt and the salmon jerky, which is actually a thing.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>First off, I just wanted to say WOW, thank you for the really nice reception I've gotten here so far! You are all lovely people.</p><p>This chapter gets into Anna's backstory. Also, WARNING: HOCKEY TALK. Not a euphemism.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                Kristoff waited until he heard Anna stirring before going downstairs and starting breakfast. He had been up for two hours and was famished, and had already been down to feed Sven, but he figured after the rough start – starts – they’d had yesterday, he could at least make her a nice breakfast before figuring out what to do with her.  The storm had dumped a decent amount of snow but had broken up during the night, saving them from being snowed in as he’d feared.</p><p>                She had stocked the fridge pretty well, and by the time she stumbled down the stairs, still yawning and pink cheeked from a face wash, he had a plate of scrambled eggs and toast on the table, and the kettle was rumbling to a boil for tea.</p><p>                “All this and you cook?” she grinned, sliding across the floor in her socks and skidding just short of the table.</p><p>                “If running a toaster and scrambling eggs counts as cooking then yes, I’m a chef,” he said humbly, pulling down two mugs. “Sorry I’m not really a coffee drinker, but I do have teas. We have apple cinnamon, green, chamomile, peach ginger – I don’t even remember buying that one – English breakfast, and Darjeeling.”</p><p>                “Ooh, Darjeeling please! With milk and sugar, well wait, I’ll do it myself, you’ve done enough,” Anna caught herself. He set aside a mug, the box of tea, and the kettle, letting her fix her cup first.</p><p>                “So what’s the plan for today?” He waited until she’d had some tea and a few bites of food before feeling her out.</p><p>                “Oh! Uh, I don’t know. Do you work today?” He walked to the front door, which was just visible from where she was sitting, and opened it. Snow was packed nearly to his knees, still holding the shape of the door. She gasped. “Is that a no?”</p><p>                “That’s a no,” he chuckled, shutting the door tight and going to finish his breakfast.</p><p>                “Well gee, I dunno.” She applied a very liberal pat of butter on her slice of toast and took a huge bite, leaving greasy crumbs on both sides of her mouth. “I didn’t really plan beyond ‘buy a one-way ticket to Alaska, book a cabin for a few days, and get the hell out of LA.’” His breakfast turned to stone in his stomach.</p><p>                “One-way ticket? Anna, do you know anyone here? At all? In the entire state?”</p><p>                “No.” She stared at her plate, obviously miserable.</p><p>                “Do you wanna talk about it?” A sigh so large it couldn’t possibly have come from that little body filled the room.</p><p>                “Not especially, but I guess I should. But is it possible to maybe go outside? I feel like it would be easier if I at least had a nice view. No offense! I mean, you’re easy to look at –” his cheeks began burning “– but I came all this way and it’s bad enough I didn’t get the cabin and didn’t get to see the glacier, and I really wanted to see the fjords too, and is it even possible to see the northern lights here? That is definitely on my bucket list, though I wouldn’t want to ruin it by seeing the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life and talk about how badly my life got screwed up and how I can’t go back to LA ever and don’t even know where to go or what to do with my life.”</p><p>                “Breathe.” Her eyes had been growing wider and wider as she rambled and she was on the verge of hyperventilating. He took a deep breath in and she followed, and he quietly counted to five before blowing the breath out. After repeating that five times, the wild look was gone from her eyes and her shoulders weren’t ratcheted all the way to her ears with tension.</p><p>                “Thanks.”</p><p>                “The trick to living is to break it down into the smallest possible pieces, that’s all. If today is too much, then break it down into an hour, a minute, second by second if you have to,” he advised. “How about you get your warmest clothes on and we’ll see how far we can get?”</p><p>                “These are my warmest clothes,” she said, gesturing to the woolen sweater, jeans, knit socks, and lined jacket she was wearing.</p><p>                “Okay, then we’re taking you shopping first. Problem solved.”</p><p> </p><p>                After helping her pick out actual snow gear – and she had wanted his approval on every item she chose, like anything would look bad on her – and picking up some food for lunch, he took her to Lowell Creek Waterfall. Not because it was the most beautiful place in all of Seward, because it wasn’t, and not because the sound of the waterfall would be soothing, because it was frozen over, but simply because the road and parking lot had been plowed and Sven could work out some energy. He opened the tailgate of his Suburban and they sat there eating sandwiches as Sven ran himself stupid in circles, just happy to finally be out.</p><p>                Anna crumbled up the ends of her sandwich where the bread was harder and tossed them to the ground, offerings for the few winter birds who were hopping around in the bright sun.</p><p>                “So…I was engaged,” she finally started, not looking at him. He swallowed hard, mouth dry, but kept quiet. “He came into Pavlova's Dog one day and we just started talking, it seemed so natural. I didn’t know if it would survive, but it was my baby, I had to keep trying. He didn’t have a dog, which I thought was weird, but he kept coming in, we kept talking, and he watched it grow with me. Then we were dating, and then last year he proposed.</p><p>                “I thought, ‘this was it.’ I was finally going to get what I’d always wanted: a family of my own. We’d have kids and dogs and it’d be crazy, but it would work because we’d make it work. You know?”</p><p>                “It sounds amazing,” he said, and truly meant it.</p><p>                “Then last month he said that we should have a prenup, and I was against it. I trusted him, and that felt like a paper saying ‘I don’t trust you enough,’ but he insisted. I said I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, and he suggested having a lawyer do a boilerplate prenup, to protect the business, and all I’d have to do was sign in front of the lawyer. That’s it. He said it would make him happy, and to please do this for him so he could have peace of mind. So I did.” She sighed, this one so heavy it seemed to weigh her down, and scrubbed a hand across her face. She focused on Sven sniffing intently at the ground, on the trail of some unknown thing.</p><p>                “Last week, he dumped me. Just out of the blue, no warning. I came home from work and he had all my things packed, told me he never loved me, and took the keys for the shop from my hand.” Kristoff’s hand clenched into a fist. “And then he showed me what I’d signed. It wasn’t a prenup at all. He’d tricked me into signing a sales agreement, and his shitty lawyer had sat there and let him lie to me about what I was signing, and will testify in court that I willingly signed away my life’s work to that asshole. For one dollar.” Kristoff’s heart was racing and he didn’t like the ugly feeling in him, the feeling that he had to find her ex-fiancé and harm him. “So he handed me a one dollar bill and said he’d never loved me. Along with many other things, like ‘you’re annoying and overbearing’ and ‘too much work.’ Then it was ‘pleasure doing business with you,’ and he left. I had until the next day at noon to be out of the house we shared. Because my name wasn’t on the lease.” Another great sigh from her small frame.</p><p>                “Anna, I don’t even know what to say. I’m so sorry.” Sven came padding up to them, tongue lolling, and Kristoff handed him what was left of his sandwich. His appetite was long gone.</p><p>                “It’s not your fault,” she shrugged, still not meeting his eyes. She scooted to the edge of the tailgate and rubbed Sven’s head, and he licked her hand before wandering off again.</p><p>                “I know, but I’m sorry for calling you annoying yesterday. You’ve been through a lot. You’re going through a lot. I’m kind of amazed you’re holding up as well as you are, honestly,” Kristoff admitted. He wanted to rub her back, pat her shoulder, do anything to try and comfort her, but his hand just fidgeted at his side, indecisive.</p><p>                “Am I, though?” she laughed. “I feel like I burst into tears every five minutes.”</p><p>                “Well yes, I mean besides bursting into tears every five minutes and going through a pound of chocolate a day and drinking entire bottles of wine in one sitting, you’re doing great.” She laughed and punched his arm, surprisingly hard.</p><p>                “You’re a real port in a storm, Bjorgman. Now I just need to figure out the rest of my life and I can get out of your hair.”</p><p>                “Well okay, what have you always wanted to do with your life? What did you want to grow up to be when you were little?”</p><p>                “A princess astronaut who got married young and had lots of kids and lived on a dog farm.” A shocked laughed escaped him before he could catch it and thankfully, she laughed too. “I know, right? I’m terrible at math and get motion sickness, there’s no way I’d ever be an astronaut.”</p><p>                “But the rest? Totally attainable,” he agreed.</p><p>                “Totally.” She hopped out of the Suburban and went to stand on the rocks at the water’s edge, looking out over the bay. After a few minutes, he went to join her.</p><p>                “I’m freezing my face off, but it really is beautiful here. The air is so clean it hurts my smog-filled lungs,” she said.</p><p>                “You should see it in the summer. It’s so green here you’d never know we ever got snow. That’s when you can do the boat tours of the fjords, and whale watching, and actually drive up to Exit Glacier without incident.” She kept looking out over the water but he saw her lips purse, trying to suppress a smile.</p><p>                “Har har, Ranger Bjorgman. So I guess I even messed this up, huh? Came at the wrong time of year, Alaska’s rolled up her sidewalks until she’s done thawing out.”</p><p>                “Not exactly.” An idea had just come to mind. Sven rubbed against his leg and Kristoff gave him a firm pat. “What’s the next item on your agenda then?” Another deep, weary sigh from Anna.</p><p>                “I guess…I guess I find somewhere to live until I figure myself out. Got any recommendations?” Sven barked at her, tail wagging.</p><p>                “What’s he saying?”</p><p>                “Sven says he knows a guy,” Kristoff explained, and Sven bounced happily. “He says the guy rents a two bedroom place almost for free and has an insane dog who thinks he’s people, but they’re both pretty alright and wouldn’t mind the company.” He looked up to see Anna staring at him, her hair whipping loose in the wind, and his breath caught. With the bay and snow-capped peaks behind her, she was a vision.</p><p>                “Are you serious?”</p><p>                “Uh, yes?” Anna launched herself off of the rock wall and had her arms wrapped around him before he could blink, her head tucked into his chest. Sven, feeling left out, stretched up as far as he could go and Anna embraced him as well.</p><p>                “You’re too good to me,” she whispered into his fur, but stole a glance at Kristoff. His heart stammered for a second.</p><p> </p><p>                “You know what sounds amazing?” she asked on the drive home. Sven was worn out from his romp and it was nearing sunset. “Pizza for dinner. Pizza and beer.”</p><p>                “We can make that happen.”</p><p>                “Can we take it home, though? I still feel kind of…sloppy. Can’t be ruining your sterling reputation, Ranger.”</p><p>                “Oh, is my reputation preceding me now?” Sven sneezed from the cargo area. “No one asked you,” Kristoff added, shooting him a look in the rearview mirror. Anna laughed.</p><p>                “I’m just feeling like a homebody, is that okay?”</p><p>                “That’s fine. There’s a game on tonight, I mean, if you don’t mind?”</p><p>                “Who’s your team? Because if you’re San Jose Sharks, we’ve got a problem.”</p><p>                “I see we have a Kings fan in our midst, Sven,” Kristoff chuckled.</p><p>                “I mean, LA, we had Gretzky, how could I not be?”</p><p>                “He was something, wasn’t he? But you don’t have to worry, I’m still reeling from the loss of our beloved Aces. I haven’t found a team yet to fill the hole in my heart.”</p><p>                “Ah, the great hidden sadness of Kristoff, the dark secret he carries with him wherever he goes. The hockey fan with no home team.”</p><p>                “LA never deserved Gretzky! There, I said it.” He braced himself for another slug to the arm, but instead she shrugged.</p><p>                “You’re not wrong. But I’m still gonna rub it in your face for all time.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. The breaking life down into bite-sized pieces you can actually face is totally an homage to 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.' It seems like something Kristoff would secretly binge.<br/>2. Excuse me, Pavlova's Dog is THE BEST dog bakery name ever, and if anyone ever uses it, they owe me 5%. For anyone unaware, a Pavlova is a baked meringue cake, named for the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova. Pavlov's Dog is a famous psychological experiment on classical conditioning, where Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell shortly before feeding dogs, and the dogs then associated a bell ringing with meals. Eventually, they would salivate every time they heard a bell ring because they were conditioned to expect food with a bell, which had previously meant nothing to them. Mash 'em together, you get Pavlova's Dog.<br/>3. Pour one out for Alaska, who lost their hockey team to Maine in 2017.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Firstly, I have to say thank you again and again to anyone and everyone reading, your feedback gives me LIFE! You're all the best, really you are.</p>
<p>Anna finally talks to Elsa (over the phone), there's slightly more hockey repartee, and Anna gets into Kristoff's phone. Yes, even surly park rangers have smart phones. I'm leaving out a big part because I inject your reactions straight into my veins.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                <em>How could I have lived without my phone for this long?</em> she marveled, and powered up her phone. Hadn’t even charged it until they got home after the park, just completely forgot about it. The passcode screen appeared, a picture of the Pavlova’s Dog storefront. A pang went through her and she made a mental note to change that ASAP. Unlock, and – fourteen texts from her sister. Six missed calls. At least one voicemail. She was in it now. Ripping the Band-Aid off, she called her sister without looking at any of the messages.</p>
<p>                “Anna, where the <em>hell </em>have you been?” Elsa hissed, keeping her anger as quiet as possible. Must be another late night at work to be in the office after 8 pm on the East Coast.</p>
<p>                “I’m sorry,  I just had to get out. I’m fine, though, really I am. I’m sorry if I scared you.”</p>
<p>                “Scared me? Jesus, Anna, I was afraid you’d –” Elsa’s voice faltered, and she took a deep breath. “I know your shop meant everything to you. And I know how you are, which is why I was worried sick when you didn’t answer. I couldn’t even call for a welfare check because I have no idea where you’re living now.”</p>
<p>                “Oh, I’m in Alaska, it’s fine.”</p>
<p>                “You’re in – what? Hold on.” Elsa’s voice rose and Anna could hear a door shut. “You are in <em>Alaska</em>?”</p>
<p>                “Yes.” Anna heaved a sigh. Elsa always reacted like this when she did something impulsive. Which was a lot, granted, but it usually worked out, so why was she always so worked up? “He stole my life from me and kicked me out and I didn’t have anywhere to go anyway. I put my things in storage and booked a flight, a car, and a cabin because I always wanted to go to Alaska, but the cabin got canceled because there was a snowstorm but I’m okay, Kristoff and Sven are taking care of me and I’m fine, I really am.” There was a long silence on the other end of the line.</p>
<p>                “Who are Christopher and Sven?” Elsa finally asked. Anna knew that tone and didn’t like it.</p>
<p>                “Kristoff. He’s a Park Ranger, he saved me when my rental broke down. Sven’s his dog. Elsa, he saved my life and he’s been very good to me, okay?”</p>
<p>                “I’ll bet,” her sister muttered.</p>
<p>                “Okay, you know what? I need to go.” She didn’t want to say something she regretted to her sister, their relationship was strained enough as it was.</p>
<p>                “Anna,” Elsa sighed, “I just want to make sure you’re –”</p>
<p>                “Okay, I know,” Anna cut her off. “You want to know I’m okay and that I’m doing what you approve of without actually being involved in my life in any way!” Well, there it was.</p>
<p>                “I have to go,” Elsa said abruptly, and the line went silent. Anna stared at her phone, and it told her that yes, her sister had hung up on her. She tossed it on the bed before flopping on top of it, face down. <em>I don’t want to cry, I don’t want to cry, all I’ve been doing is crying</em>, she kept chanting in her head, willing the prickles behind her eyes to go away. A scratch at the door distracted her, and she opened the door to Sven sitting there, looking at her quizzically.</p>
<p>                “Hey buddy,” she sniffed, crouching down to give him a good scratch. “Could you tell I was in a bad mood?” Sven licked her cheek and she couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re the best boy.” Sven stood and walked to the stairs, looking over his shoulder at her.</p>
<p>                “Oh, I see how it really is.” She crossed her arms and tried to look annoyed at him. “You just want more homemade treats.” His tail wagged once and he looked downstairs. “Well luckily for you, I need the distraction. Come on.” He led the way happily downstairs and as she hit the top step, she could hear Kristoff’s voice coming from his room. He must have been making calls, too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                “Something smells good,” he called as he marched down the stairs.</p>
<p>                “Thanks, but these are for Sven,” Anna called back. “I mean, there’s nothing saying you <em>can’t</em> eat them, but I’d love to see you explain to your hairy son why you’re eating all his special treats.”</p>
<p>                “It’s a battle I wouldn’t win,” Kristoff conceded. “But I am getting hungry, are we still on for beer and pizza?”</p>
<p>                “Absolutely! We just need the pizza. And the beer.”</p>
<p>                “Well since you’re busy and I’m not, how about I go get us dinner?”</p>
<p>                “Yes please!” Anna scratched an itch on her cheek and left a streak of flour.</p>
<p>                “Alright Sven, want to come with?” Sven, staring adoringly at Anna as she worked, shot him an <em>Are you kidding?</em> look. “Alone it is.”</p>
<p>                By the time Kristoff returned with the most amazing smelling pizza and two six-packs balanced on top, Sven’s treats were cooling on the counter and Anna was finishing washing the cookware she’d used. “Those could have waited.”</p>
<p>                “I know, but I like being busy,” she admitted, focusing a little too intently on making sure a cookie sheet was completely and utterly dry. “I miss this work.” He set the pizza on the counter and pulled two cans out of a six- pack before putting the rest in the fridge. He opened a can and handed it to her.</p>
<p>                “I know it’s not ideal,” he started, choosing his words carefully, “but would you consider starting again? With your work, I mean.”</p>
<p>                “I’m not in a place financially to open another shop. Not right now, anyway.”</p>
<p>                “Oh. Well, I mean, Sven definitely appreciates you keeping your skills up to date, and I bet other dogs here would, too.” She put the thoroughly dry cookie sheet down and threw the dish towel she had been using over her shoulder.</p>
<p>                “Would they?”</p>
<p>                “Absolutely. And, I mean, if you wanted to expand to baking people treats, I would gladly offer my services as well.”</p>
<p>                “You’re just not going to give that up, are you?” she laughed.</p>
<p>                “I mean, you can’t fault me for trying.”</p>
<p>                “No, but I will fault you for blocking my path to pizza,” she added, waving her hands to shoo him away.</p>
<p>                “Bring your beer, we’re being total slobs and eating straight from the box.” He grabbed his can and the pizza box and headed to the couch.</p>
<p>                “Well great, now I’m never moving out,” she joked, and finally took a drink. “Mmm, not bad. Alaskan pizza, Alaskan beer, I mean, you’re really representing your state here, Bjorgman. Is this where I find out I’m in an elaborate timeshare pitch?”</p>
<p>                “For a small down payment of your firstborn, you too could call this your home away from home for two non-concurrent weeks every year! Subject to limitations. How’d I do?” He looked at her from under his unruly fringe of hair and her heart did the funniest lurch in her chest, like it was trying to jump out.</p>
<p>                “If Sven is part of the timeshare, I’m in. So do I just mail in my firstborn when they come, or…?”</p>
<p>                “We can work that out after dinner. Even though I recorded the game, I’m dying to know how it turned out,” he said eagerly, grabbing the remote. Anna flung open the pizza box, and was surprised to see an extra-large with…mushrooms and diced tomatoes? “Oh, uh, I forgot to ask what toppings you liked, and then I realized I didn’t have your number to call and ask, and I’m trying to be better and cut out meat even though it’s really hard, so is this okay? I can go back if you need.”</p>
<p>                “Give me your phone,” Anna commanded, holding out her hand. Kristoff looked puzzled but slid his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. She fiddled with it for a minute, then handed it back. He saw a new entry in his contacts, “❄Anna❄,” with her number and email. His cheeks definitely went pink and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “And I texted myself from your phone so I have your number. Also, you should really set up a passcode.”</p>
<p>                “I’ve got nothing to hide,” he shrugged, and set his phone onto the table.</p>
<p>                “Not even embarrassing pictures?”</p>
<p>                “Nope. No?” Now he was thinking. “No. Pretty sure not.”</p>
<p>                “Hmm. After dinner I’m going to verify that claim,” she promised, and took a slice of pizza. “Now who’s playing tonight?”</p>
<p>                “Arizona Coyotes versus Anaheim Ducks. Who’re we rooting for?”</p>
<p>                “Ducks. I think I still have a jersey from when they were the Mighty Ducks, and you just can’t pray for the utter destruction of a team when you own their jerseys,” Anna rationalized. Kristoff stared at her, mouth agape, and she suddenly wondered if his entire family was from Arizona and she’d broken a cardinal household rule. <em>Hah, and the Cardinals are their football team, even!</em> He kept staring, and now this was getting uncomfortable. “What, how bad did I put my foot in it?”</p>
<p>                “I – no, you didn’t, I just –” he sighed, “I’m trying really hard not to say something stupid and I’m losing that battle.”</p>
<p>                “Oh, well welcome to my world! First one’s free, how ‘bout that? You can say one stupid thing and I won’t hold it against you, but after that, you’re on the hook.”</p>
<p>                “Then I’d better save that freebie,” he murmured, and drank half his beer in one gulp. She took a bite of pizza and groaned in a borderline obscene way. “Uh, everything okay?” Anna took two more large bites, trying to cram as much into her mouth as possible, and groaned again.</p>
<p>                “This is amazing,” except it came out as, “hish hish mamuzzman.”</p>
<p>                “I’ll take your word for it.” Kristoff started the recording and grabbed his own slice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                The Ducks won. Anna screamed and cheered, which caused Sven to bray along with her. It was only when she jumped off the couch and Kristoff caught her that she realized she was a little tipsy again.</p>
<p>                “Sorry, guess I got a little carried away,” she laughed, catching herself against him. Oh hey, his arms were really big. Just like the rest of him, apparently.</p>
<p>                “I’d say I’ll take you to a local game to see how rowdy you’d get, but you might end up being the type of fan that flips over cars and sets them on fire,” he chuckled, not letting her go.</p>
<p>                “What? No, I’m LA. We’re only excited on the inside and on our phones the whole time. Earnestness is dead in the sunshine state.”</p>
<p>                “But you still have it. And I haven’t seen you on your phone once since we met.”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, well…I never totally fit in there. And honestly, I’m kind of dreading looking at my phone anymore.” The worst part of being tipsy was thinking of one sad thing and crashing.</p>
<p>                “Is he bothering you?” His hands tightened around her and he looked actually angry? Not at her, but she got the feeling that if she asked nicely, he’d totally punch Hans in the throat for her.</p>
<p>                “No, thankfully, I blocked him anyway. I actually…I finally talked to my sister today and it didn’t go well.”</p>
<p>                “Oh. I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>                “It’s not your fault. It’s just, everything always happens at once, doesn’t it?” Her cheek itched and she scratched it, noticing red under her fingernails. “Whoah, hey, am I –?”</p>
<p>                “No, it’s pizza sauce,” he said, and gently rubbed off the rest. “I was trying to find the right time to tell you about that. And, actually, about the flour over here,” he added, also rubbing that off.</p>
<p>                “Okay, well is there anything I <em>don’t</em> have on my face?” Kristoff’s eyes went dark and he opened his mouth before catching himself and abruptly letting her go.</p>
<p>                “Almost said a stupid again,” he muttered, gathering the empty beer cans in the empty pizza box and almost running into the kitchen. Well okay, someone was being weird.</p>
<p>                “Hey, um…” he called from the kitchen. “I know some friends – well, family, really – anyway, there’s some people up north that have some cabins and run a little thing, and I thought that since Kenai was kind of a bust for you, maybe you’d want to go up there instead?” He busied himself refilling Sven’s water bowl and taking the dog’s empty dinner plate to wash, and kept his back to her at the sink.</p>
<p>                “Are they friends or family?”</p>
<p>                “Uh, both? Well, it’s a little complicated. See, I was in the system, the foster system, for most of my life, and when I was thirteen Ma fostered me and I stayed with her until I was eighteen. I don’t know how she did it, but she had a way of taking messy teenage boys like me and just…” Kristoff shrugged, trying to find the words. Anna moved to lean against the counter. Near enough to see him, but not enough to make him feel awkward, hopefully. “She just poured so much love on us. Her and Granpabbie. She runs this little lodge resort thing up in the Arctic Circle and I’ve been meaning to visit again and I talked to Ma today and anyway, if you want to go up tomorrow, we can fly out from Anchorage, they have their own planes and everything.” His cheeks were burning and he’d been scrubbing Sven’s dish the entire time he rambled. He was nervous. Wait a minute.</p>
<p>                “You want me to meet your mom?” Kristoff shut off the water and thought for a second, then suddenly looked horrified.</p>
<p>                “Oh no, we can’t go!”</p>
<p>                “Why not?”</p>
<p>                “Because she’ll be convinced you’re my girlfriend! You have no idea how awful she is about me and girls.”</p>
<p>                “She can’t be that bad, she just loves you! Your ma wants you happy, Kristoff.” He muttered something under his breath and looked like the sulky teenager he probably was at thirteen, which made Anna laugh. She tore off a couple of paper towels and wet them in the sink and went to wipe down the coffee table, leaving Kristoff to panic over the one dish he’d been washing for five minutes straight already.</p>
<p>                And that’s when she saw his phone, right where he’d left it hours ago. Not locked, huh? There wasn’t much on his camera roll, sadly, and he either wasn’t tech savvy or just didn’t really believe in using his phone for anything besides calling and texting, and were there really people like that left in the world? That was hard to believe. If she had to put numbers on things, 70% of his pictures were of nature, maybe Kenai Fjords? She didn’t get to really see the national park at all, and his pictures were from different times of year, but good lord, it was beautiful. Hurry up and be summer already! The other 30% of his roll was pictures of Sven, of course. <em>Good, no ex-girlfriend pictures</em>, she thought, then stopped. Hans was still in her phone, she wasn’t one to talk. Then again, the shit had hit the fan just a week ago and she’d been more concerned with other things than burning effigies and deleting him from her life. Still, the ugly green part inside of her didn’t want to see Kristoff smiling with any cute girls, because you just know he pulls in the really cute ones who are too cool for their own good –</p>
<p>                “Find anything interesting?” Only some mighty juggling skills kept his phone from crashing to the floor.</p>
<p>                “I told you I was gonna,” she said by way of excuse.</p>
<p>                “What’d you find?”</p>
<p>                “Oh, you know exactly what I found! It’s all Sven and this ridiculous, amazing place you live in.” He moved to stand next to her and gently took his phone, his hands still damp.</p>
<p>                “Oh yeah, I like taking pictures at work, Ma likes to know what I’m up to. I should show you the pictures she sends, but no, I’ll keep it a surprise,” he smirked. “What did you call Sven earlier? My hairy son?”</p>
<p>                “Yes, he’s your hairy son, deal with it.” He chuckled.</p>
<p>                “I do love my hairy son. More pictures from work – last summer I finally went kayaking in the fjord on a day off, that’s where these are from,” he explained, swiping through pictures of rich blue glacier ice floating in the water. “I only got this phone last year so there’s not much on it, but –” Kristoff’s face instantly turned red and he jammed his phone in his pocket so fast he nearly tore straight through his jeans. “That’s enough of that!”</p>
<p>                “Did I just see what I think I saw?”</p>
<p>                “Nope, time for bed!” he announced, shutting off the TV and pushing her to the stairs. Despite her protests, Kristoff got her upstairs and barricaded himself in his room. With his phone. Damn. Anna had to get a hold of it again before he deleted that picture! She paced her bare room, plotting, before going to the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a bath. There was a faint sound coming through the wall – he was taking a shower! <em>Alright, Aren, do or die</em>.</p>
<p>                Anna crept across the hallway and quietly opened his door. It would just be her luck if he had the creakiest, <em>Inner Sanctum</em> sounding door in the world, but thankfully he kept it well-oiled and it opened without a sound. And there was his phone, on his nightstand. Careful not to move it, Anna navigated to his camera roll again, swiped all the way down, and there it was: the first picture he ever took on his phone. Crossing her fingers, she pulled out her phone and searched for his wifi. And yep, of course it wasn’t password protected. <em>Thank you, you beautiful idiot</em>, she prayed silently, and finished Airdropping the picture to herself. Then back out of the camera roll, closing it totally, screen off, and back out of the room.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                After her bath, lying in bed and waiting for sleep, Anna switched on her phone and looked at the picture. The picture, a little blurry, of a shirtless Kristoff, head turned and laughing as Sven nuzzled his face. That’s a keeper.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. Kristoff is a fledgling vegetarian! Sorry if anyone's disappointed by that, but I can't make him eat reindeer pizza (which is a thing in Alaska).<br/>2. The cool thing about being an Angeleno is we're surrounded by sports teams but not really loyal to any of them, which is why it's okay to cheer for the Kings and the Ducks. Lots of us double-dip on baseball, too (Dodgers and Angels).<br/>3. I couldn't find a way to organically write it in, but the back story is that Ma called her father Pabbie growing up, and her foster children kind of adopted it by calling him Granpabbie.<br/>4. HOW DID YOU LIKE KRISTOFF'S SURPRISE??</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kristoff takes Anna to meet ma! Regrets abound, haha. I call this The Chapter Where Thirteen Year Old Kristoff Comes Out To Play.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                Kristoff snuck out of the house at 6:30, leaving Anna asleep and Sven scarfing his breakfast. While Anna had been talking to her sister, he had made some calls and texts himself, and was being picked up by a coworker he was somewhat friendly with. Since it was off season for the park and he’d never really taken a vacation before, it was easy for him to get a few days off last minute and pull some strings to get Anna’s rental car back home. As he’d suspected, it had just run out of gas and needed the battery jumped, but she didn’t need to know that. They would drive it to Anchorage and catch a flight from there to Ma’s lodge.</p><p>                When he was back home, Subaru in the driveway, he put the kettle on to boil and knocked on her door. Was that a snore? A snort? He knocked again, a little louder.</p><p>                “Hmm, I’m up!” she called out, still sounding pretty asleep.</p><p>                “Hey, sorry, we’ve just got to get going to catch our flight,” he called through the door. She groaned and he heard shuffling before the door opened. It really was just hair and the comforter from her bed greeting him, he couldn’t even see face. “Uh…”</p><p>                “No yeah, I’m up, I’ve been up,” she yawned, and shuffled past him and down the stairs, trailing her bedding. Not a morning person, good to know. Her face gradually appeared as it lightened outside and she got some caffeine and food into her. “What should I pack?” she finally asked, brushing crumbs from her face.</p><p>                “Uh, I guess just things you’d want in the middle of nowhere. Clothes, maybe five pounds out of the hundred pounds of books you’ve brought?”</p><p>                “That’s like three books, that’s nothing!” she argued.</p><p>                “Okay yeah, but we’re also flying out in a Cub with Sven and weight is a factor. Besides, they have books there!”</p><p>                “Well, what all is there to do out there?”</p><p>                “Besides marveling at the beauty that is nature?”</p><p>                “Wow, I’ve never felt so city mouse before in my life,” Anna mumbled. “I mean, can we hike places or do tours? Do they have electricity? Does everyone just go to bed at sunset because there’s nothing else to do?”</p><p>                “You will not be bored, I promise,” Kristoff said, crossing his heart. “And they even have solar power. Besides, Ma won’t leave you alone anyway. Thousands of miles of national park around you, and all you’ll hear is her,” he added with a chuckle. Anna gasped.</p><p>                “Will she tell me embarrassing stories about you? Does she have pictures? Please tell me they’re all over the walls, and every tourist that checks in gets to see you in braces at the prom!”</p><p>                “I’ve made a terrible mistake,” he groused, and ordered her upstairs to dress and pack.</p><p> </p><p>                She clutched his arm for most of the flight, alternating between squealing in fear and excitement. He’d warned her not to talk unless she had to because the pilot needed to focus, so of course as soon as they’d landed she was gushing about every single thing she’d seen. Kristoff felt a glow in his chest and guessed he was a little proud of himself for being able to salvage her trip and make it worthwhile. Besides, it’s not like he needed to do all that much: Alaska spoke for herself.</p><p>                He was carrying his and Anna’s bags, Sven bounding through the snow and yapping, when he saw a figure descend from the lodge and call his name.</p><p>                “Hey Ma!” he yelled back, and the little figure came barreling towards them, waving her hands excitedly. They talked most days and she still acted like it had been years, he thought, shaking his head. He put their bags down and hugged his foster mom, tolerating her taking his face in her hands to look him over thoroughly, asking how he was eating. Anna stepped into a deep spot of snow and squealed and Ma gasped.</p><p>                “Even prettier than I thought!” She waggled her eyebrows at him and waddled over to Anna, taking her hands.</p><p>                “Hello, sweetie, everyone here calls me Ma and I expect no different from you,” she said by way of introduction, then embraced Anna tightly. Anna looked surprised for a second before she closed her eyes and relished the hug.</p><p>                “Oh, that was nice, thank you! I’m Anna, hello.” Ma linked arms with Anna and led her back to the lodge, leaving Kristoff with their bags and Sven panting happily. Though it did look a lot like the dog was laughing at him.</p><p>                “A little help, bud?” Sven went tearing through the snow after the women. “Okay then.” By the time he’d struggled through the snow to the deep veranda of the main lodge, Ma and Anna were deep in conversation with mugs of something.</p><p>                “Ma, I need the keys so I can put our things away. Ma!” His mother looked away from Anna long enough to wave at the front desk.</p><p>                “Cabin four, you know the way,” she ordered, and was right back where she left off before the interruption. Ten minutes later he came stomping back into the lodge, knocking the snow off his feet.</p><p>                “Ma, can I talk to you for a second?”</p><p>                “Kristoff, honey, we’re talking,” she admonished, still not looking away from Anna.</p><p>                “Please, it’s important. It’ll only take a minute.” She excused herself patiently and Kristoff led her to the front doors, which he hoped was far enough away that Anna couldn’t overhear.</p><p>                “Ma, we need another cabin.”</p><p>                “Why, what’s wrong with four?” Her eyes, so wide and innocent, told a different story than her twitching lips.</p><p>                “You know what’s wrong with four!” he hissed, glancing at Anna, who waved back at him. “There’s only one bed.”</p><p>                “I’m failing to see the problem here.”</p><p>                “Ma, I can’t – we haven’t – we’re not together,” Kristoff fumbled.</p><p>                “Well that’s a wrong that needs righting. I thought she was living with you?”</p><p>                “Yeah, in the guest room! I rent the house from you, you know there’s two bedrooms there.”</p><p>                “Well I don’t assume anything,” she said breezily, waving a hand in the air.</p><p>                “You just assumed we were sleeping together,” he pointed out.</p><p>                “Well we’re all booked up, you’ll figure it out,” she shrugged, and went back to Anna. <em>She’s gonna hate me when she finds out</em>, he fretted.</p><p> </p><p>                Anna sat cross-legged on the bed, howling with laughter. “Tell me everything she said!”</p><p>                “It doesn’t bear repeating,” Kristoff sulked, somehow resenting the fact that she laughed off Ma’s conniving instead of being horrified, like he was. “What were you two discussing, though? You’re thick as thieves already.”</p><p>                “Why are you so worried? I thought you’d be happy I’m making friends in a strange land.” The cabin was basically a simple one room affair with a bathroom, the furthest cabin from the lodge, and a glass front overlooked a frozen lake. When he couldn’t delay bringing her over anymore, she’d marveled at the floor to ceiling glass and the view, walked in, and simply said, “One bed, huh?”</p><p>                “I’m sorry, I’ll figure something out. You can have the bed, I’ll sleep here,” he said, flopping onto a small couch against the far wall, as far away from the queen sized bed as he could get in a one room cabin. It was colder on that side, since it was further away from the pot-bellied stove that heated the place, but maybe he could find extra blankets…</p><p>                “Kristoff, it’s fine. We’re adults, we can sleep next to each other without being dramatic.”</p><p>                “We can?” he blurted out without thinking.</p><p>                “I think that says more about you than me,” she laughed, and began unpacking her things.</p><p> </p><p>                Anna was curled up in a lounge chair in front of the glass wall with a blanket draped across her, deep in a book. Once in a while she’d laugh or bite her nails and he found it almost impossible to focus on his own reading with that sort of view available. He must have zoned out once when he looked up at her, because it was a while before he noticed movement and realized Ma was creeping up the stairs, watching him. He jumped up to let her in but she instead poked her head through the door.</p><p>                “Just letting you know we’re all having dinner together in the lodge at five,” she announced, and waggled her fingers hello to Anna. They thanked her and she shot Kristoff a very smug look before trouncing back through the snow.</p><p> </p><p>                And it wasn’t until they walked into the lodge at 5:15 – because Anna wanted to dress just right for dinner, but couldn’t decide on what to wear – that Kristoff realized it was an ambush. Sure, Ma called it a family reunion and looked beyond thrilled to have her foster babies back under the same roof with their families, but how is it that he called her and mentioned wanting to bring a friend up, and suddenly all four cabins were booked in the off season? He should’ve seen it coming.</p><p>                It was nice, though, he grudgingly admitted during the meal. Cliff’s two kids were growing like weeds, and Brock had a kid now?  He really needed to keep up more. And the kids seemed to adore Anna, showing off everything they could to her. Brock’s baby could hardly walk but was always reaching his arms up for Anna to hold him, which she was more than happy to do.</p><p>                “I wasn’t expecting everyone to be here,” Kristoff finally got up the nerve to say. Cliff and Ma traded a look.</p><p>                “Well, apparently none of us could resist and had to see for ourselves,” he shrugged, popping an entire roasted potato in his mouth.</p><p>                “See what?”</p><p>                “Your fiancée!” Cliff rolled his eyes, talking around bites of potato. “I honestly thought you were past your prime.”</p><p>                “I’m twenty-nine!” Kristoff sputtered indignantly, and he caught Anna hiding behind the baby’s head, laughing.</p><p>                “Sorry, I keep forgetting you’re the baby of the group.”</p><p>                “Oh leave him alone,” Ma chided, patting Kristoff’s back. “He just needed the right circumstances to find his person, and it doesn’t get any more romantic than saving her life.” She began clearing the dishes, and those who had finished their meals moved to help.</p><p>                “I did not.”</p><p>                “He did so!” Ma insisted. “Anna had been sitting in that freezing car for hours before he found her, and if he hadn’t come along when he did, she would have frozen solid.” Cliff dropped his fork.</p><p>                “Whoah, really?” Anna took the baby over to a window, pointing at random things and naming them. She was careful to hide her face, he noticed.</p><p>                “No one had been down that road for hours and hours, and what was she going to do, walk five miles in the snow to reach town? In a snowstorm?” The entire room – barring Anna and the baby – turned to stare at Kristoff, and he tried to will the floor to open up under him.</p><p>                “I was just doing my job,” he muttered, trying to shrug it off. Anna had never mentioned any of that to him before, and the direness of her situation hadn’t hit him before now.</p><p>                “I thought your job was telling tourists the wrong kind of mushrooms are edible,” Brock said.</p><p>                “That was one time!”</p><p>                “I thought your job was birdwatching, honestly,” said Katie, Brock’s wife.</p><p>                “Yeah, that kind of bird,” Brock answered, nodding at Anna. The whole room burst out laughing and Kristoff changed his mind: it wasn’t nice to be surprised by family. Then Cliff came up behind Kristoff and gave him an awkward bear hug, leaning in close.</p><p>                “I don’t know how you did it, but you did really good, man.” Cliff clapped him on the shoulder and moved off to help finish clearing the table. When his entire face quit feeling like it was burning, he turned around in time to see Anna walking the baby back to his dad, the little boy’s hands grasping her index fingers tightly. She definitely had a passion for kids and animals, and it would be a tragedy if her life wasn’t full of both. She caught him staring and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, cheeks turning pink, before Ma broke the mood by announcing a game of Sevens.</p><p>                “Hey,” Anna breathlessly sat next to him, bumping his shoulder with hers.</p><p>                “Hey.”</p><p>                "You gonna play?”</p><p>                “Do I look like a gambling man?”</p><p>                “What are my odds?” He laughed.</p><p>                “You’re welcome to join in, it’s a rowdy game. But don’t worry, even though they use chips, there’s no actual money involved.”</p><p>                “Well good, it’ll make it that much easier to fleece your family and not feel bad about it. How do you play?”</p><p>                “Here, it’s easier just to show you.” He scooted his chair to be partially behind her, so he wasn’t taking room in the game and could see her cards and advise.</p><p>                “You two lovebirds playing?” Cliff crooned, shuffling the cards.</p><p>                “I’m assuming because it’s called Sevens, I don’t have to take off my boots to count?” Anna responded.</p><p>                “You can keep your socks on,” he chuckled.</p><p>                “Alright, Kristoff here will be my advisor. Deal me in.”</p><p> </p><p>                It was midnight before everyone meandered through the snow back to their cabins, calling out their goodnights and throwing the odd snowball.</p><p>                “Now <em>that</em> was a good time,” Anna sighed, face flushed.</p><p>                “And you were definitely true to your word, you took my entire family to the cleaners.” Kristoff walked slowly on purpose, hands in his pockets, enjoying the cold biting his cheeks and the stars twinkling merrily. Anna looped her arm through his.</p><p>                “I know you don’t like it when they pick on you. We can work out a signal, like you pull your ear or something, and we’ll turn the bets to clothes and they’ll be out naked in the snow before they know what hit ‘em.”</p><p>                “I’ll keep that in mind, card shark.” He sighed, his breath pluming in the still air, and she echoed his sigh.</p><p>                “Is it like this everywhere?”</p><p>                “Like what?”</p><p>                “So quiet, so still. So many stars! I’ve never seen so many in my life, how is that possible?”</p><p>                “No light pollution. We’re a hundred miles from the nearest town.” She stopped, craning her head as far back as it would go, then turning in a circle. “No moon either?”</p><p>                “New moon, so no. Tomorrow night –” There he was, almost giving away his game again.</p><p>                “Tomorrow night what?” <em>Good job, idiot. You’re so busy trying to impress her with the one good trick you have up your sleeve that you almost let it fall into her lap.</em></p><p>                “Uh, tomorrow night’s supposed to be totally clear, too, so we lucked out.” She seemed to accept his cover up, and took his arm again.</p><p>                “I wish the ground wasn’t snowy, I miss lying in the grass and just stargazing,” she sighed. “I used to do that so much as a kid, even though we couldn’t see nearly as many stars as this.”</p><p>                “Well, if you’re here in the spring, you’ll have your chance. The sun’s up too much in the summer to do much stargazing.”</p><p>                “I’d like to see both,” she said softly, now looking at her feet. They were getting close to their cabin, and good grief, the one bed sitting there waiting.</p><p>                “I mean, you could, you’d be welcome to, unless you needed to be somewhere else?”</p><p>                “I’m not needed anywhere else.” They had reached the steps to the cabin and she stopped, leading him to stop. “Am – am I needed here?” She stared hard at the cabin, purposefully avoiding his gaze. He stammered, wanting to say so much, but all that came out were meaningless fragments, and she shivered. “Better get inside,” she said, and moved up the steps. <em>You are the biggest idiot in the Northern Hemisphere</em>, he berated himself.</p><p>                Kristoff had let her get ready for bed first, changing and scrubbing up in the small bathroom, while he stoked the fire in the stove for the night and put extra blankets on the bed. By the time he’d changed and brushed his teeth she had turned off all the lights and crawled into bed, facing the wall. He slid under the covers, giving her a wide berth, and she mumbled a goodnight, already halfway asleep. He wanted to apologize, to finally give her question the answer it deserved, but instead he said goodnight and turned his back to her.</p><p> </p><p>                During the night, he woke up cold and half falling out of bed, and sat up to see her sprawled across the entire bed. How could something so small take up so much space?</p><p>                “C’mon, Anna,” he prodded her, and she withdrew to her side, groaning. He rolled onto his back, taking back some covers, and she rolled back towards him, arm flying out and slapping his face. He pushed it down to his chest and she curled up against him with a sigh. He could work with that.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ma-induced trope! Surprise foster family reunion! According to the Fandom website wiki for Frozen, Brock and Cliff are troll names from the first movie, and since they were the most you'd-actually-meet-a-person-with-that-name from the wiki entry, I used those two. (https://frozen.fandom.com/wiki/Trolls)</p><p>Also, I'm sorry, I started a new fic today and I'm still fine-tuning this one, and is this what joining AO3 does to you??</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Mmm, that sweet, sweet tension just keeps building!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                So warm, so blessedly warm. Anna was waking up but wanted to stay asleep because she was just so comfortable and toasty, why wreck a good thing? She sighed contentedly and was met with a sigh in her ear. Huh, that hadn’t happened in…forever? Ever? Maybe she was still dreaming. She nestled down further in the bed and another sigh, not from her. And arms?</p>
<p>                She’d forgotten that she hadn’t gone to bed alone. Opening her eyes slowly, all she could see was a pile of blankets, but she was able to move one arm enough to lift up the blankets and yes, there was a very large arm around her. That was letting the warm out, though, so she let the blankets fall back in place and just closed her eyes again. <em>It’s okay, it’s just Kristoff</em>, her mind said, wanting to go back to sleep. There was that pleasant drift between awake and asleep, the relief of not having an alarm to interrupt, or of having anywhere to go or anything to do, and when was the last time she could even enjoy that?</p>
<p>                Anna sighed again, and this time Kristoff pulled her close and chuckled. His fingers twitched and his breath was right on her neck, his lips almost on her skin, and suddenly she was awake. He mumbled something that didn’t seem to make sense and she realized he was still dreaming. <em>Am I in this one?</em> She tried to turn her head enough to see his face, but he murmured, “No, don’t go,” holding her even closer. His chest was against her back, his legs curled up to hers, and…oh. Her face flushed and a sudden heat filled her body. When was the last time a guy had been that excited just holding her? Had that ever happened? She scooted back into him a little more and he hummed contentedly, rubbing his face against her neck. Her hair must have tickled him or something, because he suddenly rubbed his face and stretched, and yep, he was definitely an early riser <em>oh my lord</em>. Anna gasped without realizing it and Kristoff jerked awake. She shut her eyes quickly, feigning sleep, and heard him scold himself before he slipped out of bed and staggered into the bathroom. Dammit.</p>
<p>                And then he had the nerve to come out in nothing but a towel! She stared at him for far too long without saying anything and he just stood there staring back until Sven had to wreck it all by pawing at the door.</p>
<p>                “I’ve got him,” she murmured, and ran to open the door. He grunted thanks and rifled through his bag.</p>
<p>                “Forgot my clothes. There’s still plenty of hot water, I can watch him,” Kristoff offered, and she grabbed her clothes for the day and hurried off to the bathroom. She couldn’t stand this tension if he wasn’t going to do anything about it!</p>
<p>                When Anna emerged from the bathroom, wet hair put up in neat braids and maybe a touch of makeup, the bed was made and the fire in the stove banked for the day. She found Kristoff outside playing fetch with Sven and her breath caught at the same time her heart painfully stuttered. He was wearing a dark blue knit sweater with a ski vest and dark snow pants, nothing really special, but for some reason it just really worked and she was suddenly very grateful she’d relieved some of her own tensions in the shower, because <em>damn</em>. He finally noticed her watching them from the steps and waved her over.</p>
<p>                “I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said, jamming her hands in her pockets. She hadn’t found her mittens since the day they’d met and she hadn’t seen them in the Subaru, and like a dummy she had also forgot to replace them when she got snow gear.</p>
<p>                “Nah, we were just warming up before a walk anyway. Want to come with?”</p>
<p>                “Sure! Where are we going?”</p>
<p>                “Just walking around the lake to see what we can see,” he shrugged, and offered his arm again. They set off towards the lodge and stopped in to grab snacks, and Ma was adamant they appear at five o’clock sharp for dinner.</p>
<p>                “Five o’clock, no excuses!” she warned, wagging a finger. “What time?”</p>
<p>                “Five o’clock, Ma,” Kristoff and Anna said in unison. “I have a watch,” he added.</p>
<p>                “I have my phone,” Anna said, waving it in front of her. “I don’t even get a signal up here, but it can still tell the time!”</p>
<p>                “Five o’clock. You’re wearing the sweater I knitted you! It looks nice. Now scoot!”</p>
<p>                “Is this because I have a problem with punctuality?” Anna asked as they walked back to the lakeside. “Because it’s law in California that you can’t show up for anything on time. It’s uncouth.”</p>
<p>                “Who do you think gave me this watch?” he asked, flashing his wrist. “And sets it for me?”</p>
<p>                “Boy, we’re a pair,” she laughed.</p>
<p>                “Ma always said I’d be late to my own funeral.”</p>
<p>                “Well I would hope so! Don’t be in a rush to die.”</p>
<p>                “Oh, I’m not, I’ve still got a lot of living to do.” Sven ran ahead to a curve in the shoreline and looked back at them quizzically. “Don’t you touch that ice!” Kristoff called out, and Sven bounced away, barking at the shore.</p>
<p>                “What did you want to be when you grew up?” she asked him suddenly. “You asked me the other day but I didn’t get to hear your grand ambitions.”</p>
<p>                “I don’t know if you can handle that level of awesome,” he laughed, shaking his head. “I always wanted to be a pro hockey player and Iditarod champion.”</p>
<p>                “Oh, well that’s just unfair. You’ve probably done both of those already!”</p>
<p>                “Never made it to the pros with hockey. The furthest I got was the Knuckleheads.”</p>
<p>                “Wait, they named a team after you?” Anna skittered away from him, laughing, before he could retaliate. He shrugged, admitting defeat.</p>
<p>                “I walked straight into that one, didn’t I?”</p>
<p>                “You sure did!”</p>
<p>                “So I guess explaining that they’re a local team wouldn’t make a difference?”</p>
<p>                “I mean, I am actually proud of you for chasing that dream and getting as far as you did, but it was just too good to pass up. You understand.”</p>
<p>                “Of course I do.” He knelt, fiddling with his boot laces, and she peered ahead, looking for Sven. Then he had to go and drop a handful of snow down the back of her sweater. She gasped and he took a few steps backward, hands up, before she charged him. And sacked him. Kristoff looked stunned to be looking at her one second and the sky the next, and she almost felt sorry for him. Almost.</p>
<p>                “I earned that,” he croaked, and flopped in the snow for a moment.</p>
<p>                “Are we even now, or do I have to keep going?”</p>
<p>                “Are we sure <em>you</em> weren’t the hockey player here? Because that check sure tested my fillings.” He sat up and dusted the snow out of his hair and off his back.</p>
<p>                “Quite sure. Truce?” Her hand was extended.</p>
<p>                “Truce. I want to live!” They shook hands and then shook off as much snow as they could reach. “Hey, um, did you mean what you said?” he asked suddenly, busying himself with getting every speck of snow off his pants.</p>
<p>                “About what?”</p>
<p>                “About being proud of me for chasing my dreams?”</p>
<p>                “Of course, that’s always something to be proud of.” Sven barked in the distance, impatient, and they started towards him again.</p>
<p>                “Thanks. I mean, they sound kind of silly now, but it still means something.”</p>
<p>                “And princess-astronaut-wife-mom-dog farmer wasn’t silly?”</p>
<p>                “No, you definitely need to keep going with that.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                They had stopped to rest and Anna was sitting on a rock while Sven padded around the shore of the icy lake, not going on the ice but definitely seeing how close Kristoff would let him go. She pulled out her phone and got a picture of Sven right as he tapped one paw onto the frozen edge of the lake.</p>
<p>                “Great, now I have proof of his transgressions, thanks,” laughed Kristoff, looking over her shoulder.</p>
<p>                “It is a great picture, though. I mean, very photogenic model, beautiful backdrop, I’d have to work hard to mess that up.”</p>
<p>                “I bet I could!” Kristoff said confidently.</p>
<p>                “I thought you weren’t a gambling man?”</p>
<p>                “Well, I mean, if you’re so afraid of losing that you have to make excuses like that, then…”</p>
<p>                “Alright, what are the stakes?”</p>
<p>                “Worst photographer gets thrown in the lake?”</p>
<p>                “You know I can’t pick you up, Kristoff.”</p>
<p>                “The sass!” He whistled. “We’ll have to think this one out. But in the meantime, cameras out.”</p>
<p>                “Oh hey, it’s already four,” Anna noted. “Time to head back.” Kristoff whistled for Sven as Anna started to walk back to the lodge. She was a little ways away when she realized Kristoff and Sven hadn’t joined her, and turned to see Kristoff mounting a small ridge, looking for Sven. Without thinking, she snapped a picture of him in profile atop the ridge, and he whistled again. He must have spotted the dog from there, because she saw him wave his hand in a “come here” motion, and then he was crouching to greet Sven. Another picture. <em>I’d like to see him beat those two</em>, she thought smugly.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. Yes, his outfit is totally an homage to the ice harvester outfit. Can you blame me?<br/>2. The Knuckleheads are a real team! I loved the name too much to <i>not</i> use them.<br/>3. I don't know who needs to hear this, but no matter your body size, you can tackle anyone you set your mind to. All it takes is some practice and knowing their center of gravity.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Where the title of this fic comes from, and also (debatably) the best chapter in the whole dang thing. Though it be but short, the content is mighty!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                They reached the lodge with five minutes to spare and Anna excused herself to the restroom to freshen up. Kristoff set out food and water for Sven and splashed some water on his face. A gentle breeze had kicked up and he hoped it wouldn’t grow into a full blown wind, or drag any cloud cover their way. He was banking on the sky being clear and still tonight.</p>
<p>                “Lose something, little boy?” Anna had come to stand next to him at the glass wall and he turned to see she’d taken out her braids and let her hair fall in waves over her shoulders. He must have been gaping, because she glanced away, embarrassed, and explained, “I was such a mess, this was all I could do on short notice.”</p>
<p>                “No, you look amazing,” he stammered, and felt the heat rising in his cheeks.</p>
<p>                “Thanks, you look amazing yourself.” He caught her appreciative glance as she turned away to find her seat at the table and the intrusive thought of <em>Is this really happening?</em> took over. He turned to see her talking easily with his adopted family, getting along with them like she had known them for years already, and she’d only known them one day. Brock’s baby was fussing and refusing to sit for mealtime, and Anna offered to handle him so Brock and Katie could enjoy their meal in peace.</p>
<p>                “It’s no problem, I’ll just eat when you’re done,” she insisted, and walked him towards Kristoff and the window. “He just wants to walk and play instead of eat,” she explained to him. “Do you wanna walk to uncle Kris?” The boy took a tentative step, looking up at Kristoff expectantly and drooling. Kristoff sat on the ground a few steps away and coached the baby to walk to him.</p>
<p>                She was right. He was amazed. The baby just wanted to walk back and forth between them, practicing his newfound skill, and just those few steps between them kept him occupied and happy. It also helped to see how happy that made Anna – he didn’t think she could have been more enthused if it was her own child walking towards her.</p>
<p>                By the time the baby was tired, Katie was done eating and gave Anna a hug of thanks before taking the baby away. Kristoff’s heart was overfull and he wondered if something was wrong with him. There was no way he could be in love with her, he’d only known her for a few days. But if it wasn’t love, what was it? And why did it feel like what he always thought love would be?</p>
<p>                “Hey, you okay?” Her voice broke him from his thoughts and she looked at him, concerned.</p>
<p>                “Yeah, sorry, just thinking,” he said, shaking his head. He felt his cheeks growing hot again and thought, <em>well great, now every time I look at her I’m going to blush?</em> Then Ma, good ol’ Ma, broke the spell yet again by announcing tonight’s game was Apples to Apples, and he hurried to the table because that was <em>his</em> game.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Kristoff had positioned himself and Anna so that their backs were to the glass front of the lodge, and she was just beginning to yawn and rub her eyes when Cliff gave the signal. It was happening.</p>
<p>                “Should we call it a night?” Cliff asked, feigning a large yawn and stretch.</p>
<p>                “I’m falling asleep,” Anna admitted. Kristoff brandished her hot pink knitted hat, sitting it on her head. “Hey, I’ve been looking for that!”</p>
<p>                “Sorry, I found it and forgot to give it back,” he half-lied. “Come on, let’s get you to bed. I mean sleep! Just time for sleep,” he fumbled, cheeks burning yet again.</p>
<p>                “You are so weird,” she laughed, standing and stretching. She was just turning to the front of the lodge when Kristoff pulled her hat down over her eyes and picked her up. “Hey!” Brock held open the door and Kristoff ran with her out the door and down the steps, setting her down in the snow and removing her hat.</p>
<p>                “What in the actual hell – Kristoff!” She gasped his name in a way that made him blush even more fiercely as she looked above him and saw why he’d stolen her outside the way he had. A bright ribbon of green was rippling slowly across the sky, reflecting hazily on the icy surface of the lake, and a look of pure awe took over her face. He moved next to her, not wanting to block her view, and she fumbled for his hand.</p>
<p>                “Is this real?”</p>
<p>                “You can now cross seeing the northern lights off of your bucket list,” he confirmed, as Anna slipped into a half-crying, half-laughing fit.</p>
<p>                “This is really happening? This isn’t a dream?”</p>
<p>                “Definitely not a dream.” Her gaze finally broke from the sky to fix on him.</p>
<p>                “I don’t understand. Why would you do this for me?”</p>
<p>                “I dunno, I just – you deserve it. I can’t give you much, but I can give you this.” And then she was weeping, and he wasn’t entirely sure it was happy crying, but she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down so their foreheads touched.</p>
<p>                “I wish I could give you what you just gave me,” she whispered. He gave an embarrassed chuckle. “What?”</p>
<p>                “No, I definitely can’t tell you that one. No way.”</p>
<p>                “Well I definitely won the photo contest, so you have to.” She wrested her phone from her pocket and unlocked it without pulling away from him and showed Kristoff the picture of him kneeling on the ridge with Sven.</p>
<p>                “Oh, now that’s just unfair.”</p>
<p>                “Pony up!” He fidgeted – was it suddenly hot out here? And of course he had to go and lose a bet where he had to give up something so embarrassing. Fine, just get it out, he decided, and closed his eyes.</p>
<p>                “I always wanted to kiss a girl under the northern lights,” he muttered as quickly as he could.</p>
<p>                “You what?”</p>
<p>                “I always wanted to kiss a girl under the northern lights,” he admitted, rolling his eyes at himself. “I used to sit on the roof and watch the lights and wish I had a girl to watch them with, and she’d let me kiss her.”</p>
<p>                “Is it too late for that now?” His face felt like it was actually on fire now. No way was this really happening.</p>
<p>                “Is this a trick question? Because I feel like the answer is no?” She moved so their lips were so close, almost there, and he gulped and closed his eyes.</p>
<p>                “It’s your move, Bjorgman. I blew my chance,” she whispered against his lips, and the feel of her breath, the fact that he could feel her smiling when she said that, was what pushed him to do it. She gave a hum of contentment and her arms tightened around his neck, pulling him closer, and this better not be a dream, he thought, wrapping his arms around her. He needed this to be real.</p>
<p>                The cheering and wolf whistles from his family confirmed that it wasn’t, in fact, a dream, and they finally broke apart with a shared laugh.</p>
<p>                “They really know how to wreck a moment,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.</p>
<p>                “They’re just happy for you.” She turned to watch the lights again, wrapping his arms across her chest and clinging to him. He kissed her hair, still in disbelief, and she reached back and stroked his face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                They went back to their cabin at two in the morning, when Anna could no longer stand upright to watch the lights. Sven had conked out at the lodge and they left him there, Ma promising to dogsit overnight. Kristoff set the fire for the night as Anna got ready for bed, and he leaned over to kiss her again.</p>
<p>                “Will you be awake when I’m done?” he asked.</p>
<p>                “I hope so, but I’m so sleepy,” she yawned. “I’ll try, though.” She was out by the time he was done changing and brushing his teeth, but he expected it. She still moved to him after he crept into bed, humming a happy sigh in her sleep, and he thought it made the perfect end to a perfect day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Blushing Kristoff is my favorite Kristoff! My next fic is allllllll blushing.</p>
<p>Also, I keep forgetting to mention, but Ma's little cabin resort is loosely based on Ultima Thule Lodge. More like a stripped down, basic version of that mini-resort: http://www.ultimathulelodge.com/</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The chapter that might make you yell "USE YOUR WORDS"</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                So warm again, so cozy and warm, was this going to be like that movie <em>Groundhog Day</em>? Is she reliving yesterday again? There were worse ways to go, yesterday had been pretty great, and the lights! She finally got to see the lights. And made a wish come true for Kristoff, too. A happy sigh escaped when she remembered that first kiss and the smile that crept across her face was totally a reflex, couldn’t  even control it if she tried.</p>
<p>                His arm was around her again and she carefully rolled over under his arm, facing him. Even with his cheek mashed into the pillow and his mouth slightly opened, his hair flopping over one eye, he made her insides melt. She brushed his hair away from his eye and trailed her hand down his cheek, feeling his stubble. He hadn’t shaved once since they met and she was kind of liking the scruffy ranger look. Kristoff must have liked her petting because he smiled in his sleep and pulled her closer. Taking a chance, she gave him a light kiss on the chin. Another smile in his sleep. A kiss in each corner of his mouth merited a happy sigh, and his hand moved up her side. Three kisses on the lips, and he began to kiss back, becoming more aware.</p>
<p>                “Anna.” He breathed her name as his eyes fluttered open and she felt the same way she had last night, when she saw the lights for the first time. She kissed him again and he sighed, pulling her as close as he could, and the kiss deepened. When she bit his lower lip, he groaned against her mouth and pushed her onto her back, his hand slipping under her nightshirt. Her body was burning with her need and she reached for him. When her hands slid under the waistband of his pajama bottoms, he broke the kiss off, panting heavily, and rested his forehead on hers.</p>
<p>                “How far are we taking this?” he gasped, eyes closed.</p>
<p>                “How far do you want to take this?”</p>
<p>                “You don’t want to know that,” he laughed, giving her a quick kiss. “But we don’t – I don’t have anything. Any protection.” Dammit, that.</p>
<p>                “I don’t either,” she sighed, not bothering to hide her disappointment. Here comes practicality, ruining the mood. He dropped his head to her belly and planted a soft kiss there.</p>
<p>                “I just don’t want to mess anything up,” he said, rubbing his stubble on her bare skin. She giggled, squirming. He buried his head in her stomach, nuzzling her, and inched downward. “But, I mean, there’s other things…” When she gasped and pulled at his hair, he looked up with a smirk. “Yes?”</p>
<p>                “Yes, go!” she panted.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                It wasn’t quite the same, but it was still pretty damn great. If this place had room service, Anna would never leave the bed again and that would be just fine. But it didn’t, and she was hungry and needed to pee and they should probably shower and get dressed before someone came over to make sure they were still alive.</p>
<p>                She wrapped one of the many blankets on the bed around herself and was going to pick out clothes when she noticed a movement outside the glass and froze. A reindeer, on their porch! She gasped.</p>
<p>                “Kristoff! Kristoff!” she hissed, taking a tentative step towards the glass. Kristoff groaned and shifted under the covers.</p>
<p>                “Kristoff! Wake up but don’t move.”</p>
<p>                “Are you robbing me?” he asked groggily.</p>
<p>                “Okay, look, but very slowly. No sudden moves.” She took another step and locked eyes with the stag on the porch.</p>
<p>                “Oh my god.” He had seen.</p>
<p>                “Isn’t it amazing? I get to see reindeer! On our porch!”</p>
<p>                “They’re called caribou here.”</p>
<p>                “Don’t ruin this for me.”</p>
<p>                “I’m just gonna sit here, not moving.” Anna and the stag watched each other for a few more moments before he lifted his head, sniffing the air, and moved off the porch. She made a disappointed sound and rushed to the glass.</p>
<p>                “There’s a whole bunch of them at the lake! Where’s my phone, I want pictures.” Kristoff appeared next to her and snapped a few pictures. “Send those to me.”</p>
<p>                “Sure, but I’m keeping this one all to myself,” he said, scrolling back through his roll to a picture he’d taken from the bed of Anna facing the stag.</p>
<p>                “Are you kidding me? You can’t just sit on a picture like that! That needs to be framed, wow!” She snatched his phone from his hands to look more closely, and accidentally swiped to the picture before. A picture of Anna sleeping on his chest, and Kristoff looking down at her, smiling.</p>
<p>                “Sorry, I shouldn’t have taken that. I’ll erase it.” He tried to take the phone from her but she spun away.</p>
<p>                “Don’t you dare!” There was a fury to her words. She stared at the picture for a long moment before looking up at him. “Kristoff…” She halted, searching for the words. <em>How can I even put this into words? Do those words actually exist?</em> she thought. The molten warmth that took over her insides when she looked at him, what was that? And how he made her forget – no, not forget. She still remembered everything that happened, all those details were sharp as scalpels still, but they couldn’t cut her when he was there. What magic was this?</p>
<p>                There was a knock on the glass, and they turned to see Cliff standing on the porch. Anna opened the door for him.</p>
<p>                “Might wanna get dressed and come to the lodge. Ma’s called a meeting.”</p>
<p>                “Is everything okay?” Kristoff looked worried and grabbed a sweater, throwing it over his head.</p>
<p>                “Storm coming in, we’ll have to clear out before nightfall. Come on.” Cliff stood there, waiting, and Anna finally sighed.</p>
<p>                “Can you give us a minute? I’m not wearing anything under this blanket.”</p>
<p>                “Nice,” Cliff said, shooting a look at Kristoff.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                The Cubs were lined up in the field past the lodge, waiting to take everyone away. The storm had turned unexpectedly and was bearing down on them, something too big and ugly to weather it out with what they had on hand, and so they hurriedly packed and hurriedly said goodbye, locking up the lodge and cabins. Anna passed her phone around, asking everyone to enter their name and text themselves from her phone so they would have each other’s contact information. “I know we don’t really have a signal here, but they’ll go through later,” she explained.</p>
<p>                She held his hand the entire flight back, though she was quiet this time. It wasn’t quite a sadness she felt, but maybe it was? Like they were forced out of a special place much too soon. Like they were flying back into something, but that’s silly – she’d already run away from everything, right? She was already safe. Still, the sense of foreboding wouldn’t leave.</p>
<p>                Their phones buzzed once they landed in Anchorage, everything that couldn’t get through when they were up at the cabins. Ma had sent a group text to everyone, asking them to tell her when they were home safe. Even she had left, going to stay with Cliff after he dropped his kids off with their mother. Anna saw a text from Elsa and tapped it with dread: <em>check your email</em>. She was expecting worse. Maybe it actually was nothing, and she was overreacting?</p>
<p>                There were also 25 notifications on her Instagram icon. The only account she had was for the bakery. She deleted the notifications without looking.</p>
<p>                “Everything okay?” Kristoff asked. She forced herself to take a big, cleansing breath like he’d taught her and slipped her phone back into her pocket.</p>
<p>                “Yeah, did you respond to Ma yet?”</p>
<p>                “I’ll wait til we’re home,” he said, picking up their bags. “We should probably pick up some things on the way home, too. C’mon, Sven.”</p>
<p>                “And what would you like for dinner, Sven?” Anna asked, forcing herself to stay light. The feeling hadn’t left, but she was determined to shake it before it sunk its talons in.</p>
<p>                “Something Kristoff can have, too,” came an absolutely goofy voice. “Maybe a cobbler?”</p>
<p>                “A cobbler? Do you even hear yourself?”</p>
<p>                “Okay then, a three-layer cake.” Kristoff speaking as Sven thought <em>that</em> was easier than a cobbler?</p>
<p>                “You’ll get what you get and you’ll be happy to have it!” she said sternly.</p>
<p>                “Okay, mom,” was the sulky reply.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Anna was able to find frozen blueberries at the store, so Kristoff got his cobbler and Sven got a small bowl of defrosted berries.</p>
<p>                “Are you sure he can’t have some cobbler too?” Kristoff asked, looking sad. He thought he was letting Sven down.</p>
<p>                “It’s got way too much sugar for him, he doesn’t need all that. He’s more than happy with just the berries, look at him!” Sven sat between their chairs, grinning.</p>
<p>                “I feel bad.”</p>
<p>                “You’ll feel worse when the vet tells you you’re the reason your dog has diabetes!” He stared at her for a long moment and she felt ugly and hated feeling that way. What’s worse, she couldn’t even help it, and she didn’t know what to do to stop it.</p>
<p>                “Wanna tell me what’s really wrong?” She sagged in her chair at the kitchen table.</p>
<p>                “I don’t even know, and that’s the worst of it!”</p>
<p>                “Well, when did you start feeling like something was wrong?” He reached his hands out to her and she laid her hands in his, stroking his palms.</p>
<p>                “When we had to leave. Nothing’s felt right since then.”</p>
<p>                “You felt that too?”</p>
<p>                “Wait, <em>you</em> felt it too?”</p>
<p>                “I thought I was overreacting,” he laughed, obviously relieved. She laughed too, feeling some of the weight lifting from her. Not all of it though, but focus on the good. “Maybe it was just having to move so fast.”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, maybe. I should get on those dishes, though, that cobbler’s going to be a nightmare to get off if it sets.”</p>
<p>                “It’ll be fine, I’ve got it. Let’s do something relaxing. Feeling up to a movie?” It was hard for Anna to walk away from a mess – it was the not fun part of baking, but it was still a part of the process, and the process soothed her. But so did he, and he <em>did </em>need to learn that if one person cooks, the other person cleans…</p>
<p>                “Yeah, that sounds nice.” She forced the nagging something, whatever it was, further back in her mind, and went to see what they could find to watch. “This one’s just starting,” Anna suggested, hogging the remote. “<em>The Clock</em>, from 1945. ‘Judy Garland stars as Alice Mayberry, who meets Corporal Joe Allen, played by Robert Walker, at Pennsylvania Station. The two spend a whirlwind 48 hours together on Joe’s leave before he is shipped to the front lines of the war in Europe.’ Could be interesting?”</p>
<p>                “Let’s give it a try,” Kristoff shrugged. “I always had a thing for Judy Garland.”</p>
<p>Anna had always been a sucker for romance and was expecting a kind of cheesy movie. She hadn’t been prepared for two strangers, thrown together by chance, letting their guards down, letting themselves be vulnerable with each other, and ultimately marrying each other with the faith that they could make it work despite the obstacles in their path. <em>When did humanity lose that faith in each other?</em> It made her soul ache. When it was over, she looked up at him to see his reaction, and if he might be feeling that boiling lava, volcano-about-to-erupt feeling inside that she was feeling, the movement and momentum that heat brought with it. He was still staring at the TV, seemingly lost in thought. He kept staring, and now she thought he was just still watching TV and hadn’t really absorbed anything at all from Alice and Joe finding each other at such a chaotic, unstable time in life and deciding to take a chance on each other. So she switched off the TV. And he kept looking at it. Now she was getting angry.</p>
<p>                Anna stood, ready to stomp off to her room, but he grabbed her arm. She looked at him, ready to say something, but the look on his face was…what <em>was</em> it? She couldn’t name it, at least nothing accurate sprang to mind, and then he gave a quick yank to her arm and she sat on his legs to keep from falling and his hands were holding her face and <em>that look</em>. He looked lost, and like he was going to say something terribly important, and maybe that he was going to cry, too? But then he pulled her to him and kissed her and clung to her like they were in the midst of a storm and all they had was each other to keep from being lost forever.</p>
<p>                He pulled away long enough to ask, “Upstairs?” and she nodded, breathless, and he carried her up and laid her on his bed. He stood there, staring at her for a few moments, and it wasn’t until she reached for him that he laid next to her, still with that indiscernible look. She turned to face him, brushing his hair from his face, and why did he look almost miserable?</p>
<p>                “It’s okay,” she whispered, and leaned forward to kiss his nose.</p>
<p>                “Is it?” She nodded, and that seemed to break whatever spell was holding him because he came to her with a deep sigh, holding her tight. He seemed to be trembling and her heart broke for him, and for not knowing what he was going through and for not knowing how to make it better. All she could do was stroke his hair, that blond mess that had to stay exactly as it was forever, no haircuts but also no growing longer because it was perfect right then, and then kiss the furrowed space between his brows, causing it to relax.</p>
<p>                “It’s okay,” she said again, kissing his cheek. He sighed. “It’s okay.” A corner of his mouth. “It’s okay.” She was aiming for the other corner but he turned, catching her mouth with his, and that’s when his dam broke.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                They were under his covers, curled together, and his tension seemed to have finally left. She didn’t even feel like she had any bones left in her body after that, and there may have been a few minutes where she forgot her own name, but now they were drifting together, exhausted. He mumbled something into her hair and she asked, “Hmm?” but he just squeezed her and sighed and she was asleep.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I caught <i>The Clock</i> on cable TV once at someone's place and it had a lasting effect on me. Obviously, if I'm writing about it years later. If you can ever find it, I highly recommend it!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kristoff says a thing! Volcanoes! And then some angst. I'm sorry.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                He couldn’t find her anywhere. He had woken up to a cold, empty bed, and the spare room was empty. No sign that anyone had ever been in there. He had hurried downstairs, trying not to run, and there had been nothing. No one in town had ever seen her. It was like she never existed.</p>
<p>                Kristoff jerked awake when someone touched his arm and his eyes snapped open and Anna was there, really there. Relief flooded him, leaving him shaky, and he planted small kisses all over her face and she gave a bewildered laugh.</p>
<p>                “You looked like you were having a bad dream, but clearly you weren’t?” she explained, puzzled yet pleased.</p>
<p>                “No, that was definitely a nightmare. Waking up to you was the antidote.”</p>
<p>                “Mr. Bjorgman, you’re going to quite turn my head with this type of talk,” she drawled in a terrible Southern accent, fanning herself.</p>
<p>                “I mean it.”</p>
<p>                “Well that’s nice and all, but what time is it?” She yawned and shivered. “I feel like I barely got any sleep.” He checked the time from his watch on the nightstand.</p>
<p>                “Six in the morning.”</p>
<p>                “Ugh, buttcrack o’clock.” She rolled over, taking most of the bedding with her, and hunkered down to go back to sleep. But he was wide awake, and there were things to say.</p>
<p>                “Anna, could we talk though?”</p>
<p>                “About what?” she yawned, not moving.</p>
<p>                “Well, um, I guess about last night?”</p>
<p>                “What, you want performance notes?” She rolled over and squinted at him in the dim light. “Because I don’t have any complaints, I mean, ten out of ten, would do again.” He’d never felt so proud yet embarrassed in all his life.</p>
<p>                “Wow, thanks – really?”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, really, don’t worry about it. And now I know why you were sweating so much in the grocery store last night.” He had slipped away when she was in the frozen food aisle and bought a box of condoms and he could honestly say it never stopped being embarrassing, buying those things.</p>
<p>                “Next time you can buy them, then! But no, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” She sighed and sat up, clicking on the nightstand light.</p>
<p>                “I just…I guess my dream kind of confirmed some things? And I wanted to say them before something happened.” Well, this had seemed like such a good idea when he’d woken up to find that she was still here, that she hadn’t vanished from the world without a trace, but now she was looking at him expectantly and she’d turned on the light and could actually see him fumbling.</p>
<p>                “Okay, what’s up?” Deep breath. Hold it. Count to five. Let it out.</p>
<p>                “Anna, I’m in love with you,” he blurted out. He was afraid to look at her.</p>
<p>                “Is that your freebie?”</p>
<p>                “No. I…that was the thing I’ve almost been saying for days. And I know we haven’t known each other long, and you have a lot going on and it’s probably the last thing on your mind. I’m not expecting anything…but it’s there.” A few agonizing seconds of silence followed. Why did he have to live in such a quiet place? Why couldn’t he live under an airport’s flight patterns? Directly over a 24-hour bowling alley?</p>
<p>                “How do you know?” Her voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear her, even in the dead silence. “How can you tell?” He sighed, trying to find the words.</p>
<p>                “It’s…it’s because I wasn’t expecting this at all. I didn’t look at you on that first day and immediately know, but you came into my life and it was like experiencing a part of the world I couldn’t see before. It feels like what I’ve always thought love should feel like.” That still didn’t feel adequate to describe the full scope of things, and why didn’t anyone have words for these things? Anna sighed, and then she had flopped on the bed next to him, looking up at him.</p>
<p>                “Mine’s a volcano.”</p>
<p>                “A volcano?” He was totally lost. <em>Are we talking about the same thing?</em></p>
<p>                “Yeah! When you came and saved me you were just a grumpy ranger –”</p>
<p>                “No, I wasn’t!”</p>
<p>                “You most certainly were! Don’t interrupt. You were just a grumpy ranger, and I was just ashes. But then you took me home and just let me be me and I was so messy and I promise you I’m not usually like that, but you just let me get it out and didn’t judge and then you looked at me so nicely, it started to warm me.”</p>
<p>                “How was I looking at you?” She made a ridiculous, puppy dog lovey dovey face and he burst out laughing. “There is no way I’ve ever made that face in my life.”</p>
<p>                “You make it every day when I’m around. Anyway, you looked like that and were good to me when no one else in the world was good, so I kept getting warmer. And then the lights!” She gasped and clutched her hands over her heart and she beamed so brightly, and he knew that moment was one of those rare ones that seared into memory forever as soon as they were made. “And then you were so cute in your sweater and acting shy about kissing a girl under the lights, how many times has that worked for you?”</p>
<p>                “Once! With you.”</p>
<p>                “Huh. I’d encourage you to use it more often if you were someone else.”</p>
<p>                “But I’m not, so please continue.”</p>
<p>                “Yes. So. Where was I? Oh, right, your cute little bashful routine under the lights, and it just kept building and building. And then we watched the movie last night and my volcano just erupted.”</p>
<p>                “What does that mean? When you say your volcano erupted?”</p>
<p>                “I don’t know, exactly, it’s just…I had to <em>do</em> something. My feelings were too much to keep in,” she added, sitting up again. She fiddled with her pillow. “I was ready to do something drastic.”</p>
<p>                “Like what?”</p>
<p>                “Like – hey, I’ve been looking everywhere for these!” Anna interrupted herself when her pillow had moved enough to reveal her long-lost mittens. “Have they been here the whole time?” She was turned half away from him, toying with her mittens and not looking at him. <em>She probably thinks I’m a total creep now</em>, he fretted.</p>
<p>                “I, yeah, I put them in my pocket that night and forgot and then they were there and…” Well that wasn’t convincing at all, even though it was the truth. She slipped them on her hands and looked at them again.</p>
<p>                “But they were under my pillow. Did you put them there for the Mitten Fairy?” Anna laughed and pounced on his back, kissing his cheek. “You really are smitten, aren’t you?”</p>
<p>                “I mean, yeah. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>                “It is, but it’s still nice to hear,” she sighed in his ear, and nipped at his earlobe. “I feel – something different with you. I’m still trying to figure out what love really is, because I thought I knew what love was but clearly I didn’t, but…this is good. Whatever it is. I mean, I wouldn’t – I don’t do that with just anyone, Kristoff.”</p>
<p>                “I don’t either.”</p>
<p>                “Okay, good. That being said: wanna fool around?” He nodded and she pushed him back against his pillow. “Alright, but the mittens stay on.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Anna insisted on going out to breakfast, claiming she was too weak from hunger to even manage to make her own tea. Kristoff thought some of the townies in the diner looked at them curiously, maybe recognizing him, but maybe they were just staring because she was the bright spot in the room. He might have been biased, but it had to be true.</p>
<p>                They were just about to settle the bill at the counter when her phone began buzzing with a call. “I’ll just be outside,” she said, walking off. By the time he was finished and met her outside, she was wrapping up the call and looking dazed.</p>
<p>                “I’m looking but everything’s tiny on my phone, can I just call you when I’m on my laptop at home?” A beat. “Yes, I’ll get right on it. No, I understand, I –” A deep sigh. “Thank you, Elsa. I never would have expected this. I just gave up and walked away, I told you what he said. You really think this’ll work?” Another pause. “Okay, I’ll call you once I’ve looked. Yes, today. Yes! Yes, I gotta go.” She hung up and her eyes were glassy when she looked up at him. His breakfast had been good, but now it was sludge in his gut.</p>
<p>                “What is it?”</p>
<p>                “I – I’m not sure,” she said, looking stunned. “I should get home, though, Elsa sent me some things, some documents, when we were up at Ma’s, and I really need to look at them.” She started walking to the Suburban when he caught her arm.</p>
<p>                “Anna, what’s happening?” Her explanation hadn’t made him feel any better.</p>
<p>                “Elsa thinks she’s found a way to get my shop back.” Well, there it was. Was he able to keep his face from showing the panic he felt rising?</p>
<p>                “That’s, uh, that’s great?” he half-stated, half-asked, trying to gauge her reaction to the news.</p>
<p>                “Yeah? I mean, no guarantees on anything, of course. But wow, if she could pull this off, I’d get my life back.” She began walking to his car again.</p>
<p>                “Half your life, right?” he asked when they were in the car.</p>
<p>                “What?”</p>
<p>                “You mean you’d get half your life back, right? You could get your business back, but not him…right?” His stomach was roiling and he started the engine and made for the exit, if only to make sure he was home when he got sick.</p>
<p>                “Well yeah, of course! It’s not like he’s apologizing and asking for another chance here.”</p>
<p>                “What if he was?”</p>
<p>                “So what if he was?” He focused intently on the road, even though the snowfall was light and home was only a few minutes away. The majority of accidents happen within a five minute drive of home, after all. He could feel her staring at him. “Kristoff, what’s really going on?”</p>
<p>                “I was just asking a question.”</p>
<p>                “Were you? You’ve been weird since Elsa called.” <em>Because I feel like my nightmare is coming true in slow motion!</em> he wanted to yell, but kept silent. He was quiet as he parked in the garage and let them into the house, and as he fed Sven his belated breakfast. Anna had watched him for a few minutes but he didn’t dare look at her, and eventually she had gone upstairs to the spare bedroom. His heart began to ache. At the top of the stairs, he stopped to see her door closed, and he could faintly hear her talking and another woman’s voice. She must have Elsa on speakerphone. He went to his bedroom but couldn’t bring himself to totally shut the door, and flopped onto the bed with a book he couldn’t stand to read.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Making up for the last chapter! Also, Anna checks her Instagram.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                She was still mad at him – well, not exactly mad, but hurt? Confused, definitely. Anna wasn’t sure why he had started acting so strangely when she had told him Elsa’s news. She definitely thought he’d be happy? He seemed to understand just how much Pavlova’s Dog meant to her and what she had poured into it to make it successful, and that how Hans had stolen her work and basically spit in her face just knocked her life down to the foundations. But instead, he’d just turned away.</p>
<p>                Elsa had walked her through the documents she had emailed, and she was grateful because one, that meant her sister wasn’t still mad at her; and two, what she was looking at was confusing as hell and only a lawyer could translate that gobbledygook. Which happened to be Elsa’s job. Her sister hadn’t explained what had led her to start digging into Hans and his seedy lawyer and the tricks they’d pulled, but Anna was eternally grateful that Elsa had turned her sharp eyes onto them, because what she found changed everything. Things were still up in the air when the call ended, but Anna had more hope than she’d had since Hans had pulled the rug out from under her two weeks ago.</p>
<p>                Kristoff’s door was open a crack and she listened at the door for a moment to try and figure out what he was up to. Nothing. She gently pushed the door open and stepped into the room to see him lying on the bed, facing the sliding glass doors that went out onto a small balcony. “Kristoff?” He grunted in response. “Can we talk?” An awkward shrug was all he gave. She sighed and sat next to him on the bed.</p>
<p>                “Do you really think I’d take him back?” she asked, watching his back. He shrugged again. “Why would you think so little of me?” Instantly he sat up and turned to face her.</p>
<p>                “I don’t think little of you!”</p>
<p>                “Then why did you just shut me out? Why did you assume the worst about me and then turn your back?” Tears were starting and she hated crying in front of him yet again, but this hurt, dammit. He looked crestfallen.</p>
<p>                “I don’t know, I’m – jealous? You were about to marry him, Anna, and I don’t know what I am to you. Being engaged to someone isn’t nothing.”</p>
<p>                “It was to him,” she said quietly. “Honestly, at first I didn’t think I’d ever recover from that, from being dropped like that. It <em>ached</em>, Kristoff. But…but I met you and you brought me into your home and your life and whenever I’m with you, that ache is gone. I don’t know how to say it right,” she added, growing frustrated, “but the things you’ve done for me overshadow anything he had ever said or done in the two years I’d known him. You have shown me more love in a handful of days than he could do in a lifetime, and that means so much.” His hand reached out to cover hers.</p>
<p>                “I’m sorry. I was so stupid.”</p>
<p>                “No, you weren’t.”</p>
<p>                “I was, I could have handled that so much better.”</p>
<p>                “Well okay, you were a little stupid,” she conceded.</p>
<p>                “You’re not supposed to agree!” But he was finally looking at her again, thankfully, and all the warmth was back in those eyes that made her heart belly flop. “Do I deserve a kiss?”</p>
<p>                “It’s not for me to say what you deserve, but I will give you a kiss.” That soothed him, and he leaned back against the headboard, patting the space next to him for her to join.</p>
<p>                “So what’s-his-face was no volcano?”</p>
<p>                “He wasn’t even an anthill,” she scoffed. “When I was with him, I was that kind of volcano that dribbles out ash and smoke –”</p>
<p>                “Lahar,” he interrupted.</p>
<p>                “Oh, really? There’s a different name?”</p>
<p>                “Yep. Lahar is mud from volcanic ash and water, lava is the molten rock that comes out of a volcano. And magma is molten rock below the surface.”</p>
<p>                “Well thank you for the educational experience, Mr. Ranger. As I was saying, with Hans it was all lahar, but with you it’s lava. Is that better?”</p>
<p>                “That’s better. And while I do have issues with my name, at least I’m not called Hans.”</p>
<p>                “Now you’re just being petty. So do you want to hear how Elsa’s taking him down, or what?”</p>
<p>                “I am definitely petty enough to hear all of the dirty details on your sisterly revenge plot. Should I make popcorn?” Her eyes brightened.</p>
<p>                “Would you?” He stared at her for a minute before laughing.</p>
<p>                “Are we really doing this? Are we making popcorn while dreaming up revenge on your ex?”</p>
<p>                “What can I say? We know how to have fun.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Anna kept trying to toss popcorn into the air and catch it in her mouth, and every piece ended up on the floor for Sven to gobble up.</p>
<p>                “No, like this,” Kristoff advised, and tossed yet another piece high into the air, catching it perfectly.</p>
<p>                “That’s what I’m doing!” Her toss sent popcorn behind the couch, and Sven went skidding off to find it. “You’ll never need a Roomba with him around.”</p>
<p>                “Why do you think I keep him?” He moved the extra-large bowl of plain popcorn to the coffee table and turned to face her on the couch. “Okay, so now will you please let me in on this cross-country revenge plot? I’m feeling kinda left out here.”</p>
<p>                “Wait, one more. I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” It bounced off her face and Sven was instantly rooting for it. “God, right in my eye!” It took everything in him to not laugh when she turned to him, rubbing her eye.</p>
<p>                “Okay?”</p>
<p>                “Okay,” she sighed. Sven whined and she scooped a handful of popcorn onto the floor for him to eat. “So remember how I told you Hans tricked me into signing a sales agreement that sold my business to him for a dollar? When he told me that, he made it clear that if I tried to sue or fight him legally, his lawyer would testify that I was making an informed decision and was aware I was signing a sales agreement, not the prenup I actually thought I was signing. Well…Elsa found out Hans’s sleazy lawyer has been disbarred. Actually, he was disbarred in three different states, and was disbarred in California last year for doing this exact same thing before.”</p>
<p>                “Oh my god,” Kristoff murmured, leaning forward in his seat. He grabbed a handful of popcorn.</p>
<p>                “And she’s still digging on Hans, because it’s hard to find anything on him since he doesn’t have any social media or much of an internet presence, but it looks like he’s done this before to other women.”</p>
<p>                “What?” Another handful of popcorn, his eyes wide.</p>
<p>                “She thinks so, she’s still working on it. But if that is the case, if we can prove that they’re both scamming women out of their small businesses and then turning around and selling those businesses for a nice profit, then she said we could take them down and I could get my business back.”</p>
<p>                “That – that’s amazing, Anna.”</p>
<p>                “It makes me sick, thinking about all the other people he’s done this to,” she said, giving Sven another large scoop of popcorn. She took a few for herself. “I hope we can help them somehow, too.”</p>
<p>                “I’m sure Elsa’s doing all she can,” he said reassuringly, rubbing her back.</p>
<p>                “Oh! Also, she wants to know when she can meet you, ‘mysterious mountain man of the west.’”</p>
<p>                “Is that what she calls me?”</p>
<p>                “Yes, even though I already explained that you’re more ‘grumpy ranger man of the west.’”</p>
<p>                “I’m not grumpy!”</p>
<p>                “Of course you’re not,” Anna crooned patronizingly, tousling his hair. “We should go for a walk, if it’s not too bad out.” Sven perked up, popcorn forgotten.</p>
<p>                “That’s not a bad idea, I think we could all stand to go outside,” Kristoff admitted, and moved to the coatrack by the garage door to pull on a coat and boots.</p>
<p>                “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up!” Anna called, running upstairs to get her own snow gear. When she sat on the bed to pull on her boots, she checked her phone and saw more Instagram notifications. “What the heck?” Sliding her phone into her coat pocket, she bounded down the stairs and found Kristoff and Sven walking towards the treeline near his house. Sven was bouncing happily in the snow and some lazy, fat flakes were still falling around them. The world seemed so quiet when it snowed. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the boys playing in the snow, then took a deep breath and opened Instagram. It had hurt too much to even think of opening the app before today, but maybe now there was enough hope in her to handle it?</p>
<p>                Her regulars were leaving comments on her older postings, especially the ones with a picture of her, and asking what had happened to her. There were eight direct messages, all more or less saying, “What happened to Anna?” One loyal customer, Anna remembered her dachshund well, left a comment on the last photo Anna had posted, and she didn’t mince words. “Who is this idiot who can’t tell a Bernese Mountain Dog from a Bichon Frise, and what has he done to our Anna? This chud claims she sold PD to him and then she skipped town, but Anna would NEVER do this to her furry friends. #WHEREISANNA #JUSTICEFORANNA” Not even a snowflake landing directly on her nose could touch the rosy glow that these wonderful almost-strangers had given her.</p>
<p>                Kristoff called out something and waved to her, and she pocketed her phone and waved back before awkwardly jogging to them.</p>
<p>                “Man, no one told me just walking in snow is a workout,” she huffed.</p>
<p>                “How do you think I keep my boyish figure?”</p>
<p>                “I thought you bench pressed Sven.”</p>
<p>                “Well that, too. That’s two parts of the Alaskan Ironman. The third part is just surviving a Polar Bear Plunge.”</p>
<p>                “Every aspect of that sounds horrible,” Anna shuddered. “I have to be tricked into exercising. If it feels like work, I go lie down.” Sven dropped a large, gnarled branch at her feet and skipped away, looking at her expectantly.</p>
<p>                “Sorry, looks like Sven is asking for some exercise,” Kristoff explained.</p>
<p>                “Oh, well it’s not exercise if you enjoy yourself!” she rationalized, and started a rowdy game of fetch with Sven.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                They went inside when it got too dim to see each other, Anna shaking the snow from her hair and halfheartedly complaining about numb fingers and toes.</p>
<p>                “Well how about you go take a nice long bath and I’ll run get us something to eat,” Kristoff suggested. “We actually have a good Thai place in town –”</p>
<p>                “Yes, please and thank you!”</p>
<p>                “Well that was easy. What’ll you have?”</p>
<p>                “Yellow curry and a Thai iced tea. Thank you, I love you,” she added, giving him a peck on the cheek. Anna quickly turned away to head upstairs to a nice hot bath, silently laughing at how stunned he had looked.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>It's okay for dogs to have plain popcorn! I actually made sure before writing it in, haha. You know dog baker Anna would know that for a certainty.</p>
<p>Also, while there's lots to like about Kristoff, I love that he looks genuinely surprised every time Anna kisses him in the movies. Been together for years? Still surprised she kisses him. Engaged? "Huh, she's still kissing me!" So I kind of slipped that in.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anna gets some important news. Be careful what you wish for!</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                They were awoken by the sound of Anna’s phone buzzing. Three calls in a row.</p>
<p>                “Elsa, you’re four hours ahead of us here, give me a freaking break!” Anna groaned into the phone, pulling the covers over her head. Kristoff tried to stay warm and asleep, but the heat could stand to be turned up some, and maybe putting on some clothes would help? Plus, Anna kept talking under the comforter.</p>
<p>                “Wait, what?” Her head popped out from under the covers, hair mussed, and she suddenly looked awake. She listened intently and Kristoff watched her as he pulled on his thermal shirt and bottoms. She caught his eye and gave an over exaggerated pout before being distracted by her phone call again. “Tomorrow? So soon?” He shuffled downstairs to turn up the heating and get Sven some breakfast, puttering around to give Anna some time and privacy to finish her conversation. But it was still too early, and on the next to last day of his vacation, and he didn’t want to be up this early if he could help it. When he re-entered the bedroom, Anna was staring at the wall, dark phone in her hand.</p>
<p>                “You okay?” She jumped.</p>
<p>                “I think so, I just…there’s a lot to process here.”</p>
<p>                “Need to talk it out?” She sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands before falling backwards onto the bed, bouncing. He laid next to her.</p>
<p>                “I really don’t know what to do here,” she admitted. “Elsa has been busy, apparently. With her lawyerly magic, she found out Hans had backdated the sales agreement he tricked me into signing, and altered the date I had written next to my signature. That’s considered forgery. She’s got him.”</p>
<p>                “That’s great!”</p>
<p>                “Yeah,” she said, sounding more dazed than happy. “She also found out he already had a buyer lined up to sell the store to. She has some associates in California stopping him, but wants me to fly down tomorrow to be involved and sign some things to get the store back in my name.” Kristoff swore he could actually hear his heart crash, and he could certainly feel it.</p>
<p>                “So you’re going home tomorrow.” He sat up, feeling sick.</p>
<p>                “I guess so? She booked me a flight already. From Anchorage.” Well that was it, then. Lulled into a false sense of security yesterday, punched in the gut today.</p>
<p>                “What do you need to do to get ready?”</p>
<p>                “The flight’s not until late tomorrow morning, there’s not much to do. Kristoff, are you okay?”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be,” he muttered, and left the room. <em>I told you I loved you yesterday and then you flee the state, what could possibly be wrong?</em></p>
<p>                He was leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting for the kettle to boil and doing something on his phone when she came to him.</p>
<p>                “Seriously, are you okay?” she asked, voice quiet. She was already dressed, hair combed and put up in braids pinned to her head. That was a new one. <em>It would look really cute in summer</em>, he thought before catching himself.</p>
<p>                “Sure, fine, just looking to squeeze in one last day of Alaska before you head home,” he said, forcing cheerfulness. “We could check out the Fur Rondy in Anchorage and stay overnight, if you’d like. Make it easier to catch your flight tomorrow.” She looked confused, but seemed to believe he wasn’t absolutely falling apart behind the scenes like he really was.</p>
<p>                “I have no idea what a Fur Rondy is, but okay?”</p>
<p>                “Well, back in the fur trading days, the trappers would all come into Anchorage around the same time, and it came to be called the Fur Rendezvous. Eventually it turned into a big festival. I don’t know, I just thought it might be a nice way to spend your last day…” His hand rubbed at his neck.</p>
<p>                “That sounds really fun, are you up for it?”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, definitely,” he lied, and hated that he was lying to her. But he couldn’t mope and cling to her ankles and beg her to stay, all he could do was be there for her and hope that she remembered him after she was gone. “There’s some Airbnb places open but I need to make a profile to book one –”</p>
<p>                “That’s okay, I have one already!” She pulled her phone from her back pocket and opened the app. “I’ve been bookmarking places I want to stay at all over the world but I’ve never actually gone to any of them, isn’t that sad?” she laughed. “Just too busy working all the time.”</p>
<p>                “Here’s your chance before it’s back to the grind.”</p>
<p>                “Yeah, I guess so.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                They arrived in Anchorage in the afternoon, heading straight to the small homestead cabin they’d booked through Airbnb and checking in. They left Kristoff’s Suburban there and walked to a pub a few blocks away for a late lunch before catching some of the dogsled race. Kristoff may have drank a little more than he should, but he felt that he couldn’t enjoy himself sober, and drinking just enough took the worst of her leaving away. If she noticed, she was nice enough not to say anything.</p>
<p>                In spite of himself, Kristoff enjoyed the day as it turned into evening, letting her drag him from one thing to the next. She loved the race, and he had to stay right on top of her to keep her from touching all of the snow sculptures. She even convinced him to participate in a blanket throw – where people gather around a large, circular blanket, and toss someone sitting on the blanket up into the air – but even she couldn’t get him to climb up onto the blanket.</p>
<p>                “I’m going to be the one guy in history that goes flying off and lands on his head,” he swore, and she laughed at him. “Ooh, hey, whiskey tastings!” He saw a sign outside a pub advertising tastings and pairings, and she gently pulled his arm to get him to lean down.</p>
<p>                “I know today is hard for you, but please,” she murmured. She looked pained and he immediately felt like a guilty, stupid jackass. “Let’s make tonight worth it.”</p>
<p>                “Starting now?”</p>
<p>                “You don’t want to watch the fireworks?”</p>
<p>                “I’d rather make them.” She groaned and gagged, pulling all sorts of horrible faces.</p>
<p>                “Whew, the cheese of it all!” Kristoff laughed in spite of himself. It hurt to even think about life after tomorrow morning, but she had a way of making him enjoy every second of it right now. “Compromise: let’s have a really good dinner, then you can wow me with your sparkler.”</p>
<p>                “So now we’re naming body parts? Why can’t I be a Roman Candle?”</p>
<p>                “It’s gonna be called Piccolo Pete if you keep it up.”</p>
<p>                “What? Why Piccolo Pete? Am I offended? Should I be offended?”</p>
<p>                “Because there’s usually a high-pitched scream to go with the sparks,” she explained, and gave a little scream. He moved to cover her mouth, feeling like his face was burning off his skull.</p>
<p>                “Jesus, Anna!” he muttered, and she laughed and licked his hand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                She wasn’t wrong, he realized that night, half asleep. There was usually a little scream, and even on the edge of passing out, he felt himself blushing and a little proud that he brought that out of her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is the worst chapter. I KNOW. I should have named this fic "Use Your Words."</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                No, dammit. The alarm was going off, it was only 6 AM, it was still dark for hours, and she didn’t want to go. Her dreams had been vague, unmemorable, but full of anxiety. Anna sat up in bed, more tired than when she had gone to sleep a few hours ago. Kristoff groaned and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.</p><p>                He was awake when she emerged from the bathroom, showered and dressed, teeth brushed. Just sitting on the edge of the bed, feet on the floor, staring at them. She sat next to him, her feet dangling in space, and bumped her shoulder against his. He bumped her back, and she rested her head on his shoulder. He took her hand and sighed, took a breath like he was going to say something, then let go of her hand and stood.</p><p>                “I should get ready,” he mumbled, moving off to the bathroom.</p><p>                They were quiet as they packed and left the cabin, and quiet all the way to the airport. He stopped at curbside dropoff and paused before shutting off the engine, asking, “Should I park and walk you in?” Anna shook her head.</p><p>                “It’s easier this way. Right now it feels like I’m going to be just a car ride away, in there it’ll feel like a thousand miles away.”</p><p>                “Three thousand five hundred miles.”</p><p>                “What?”</p><p>                “You’ll be three thousand five hundred and something miles away. About a sixty-five hour drive.”</p><p>                “That isn’t helping!”</p><p>                “Nothing is helping!” he snapped, and took a deep breath. Then another one. She joined him for the last three, willing her heart to quit staggering and lurching like it was slipping on ice. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>                “Me too,” she said, and meant it. “Text me your address, I’ll send you a postcard. You know, so you remember what the sun looks like.”</p><p>                “Maybe one day you can take a vacation again and I’ll see you around? Maybe you’ll even remember me.” She felt so sick.</p><p>                “I could never forget you.”</p><p>                “I’ll definitely never forget you. I’m pretty sure I have the scars to prove it.” She tried to laugh but it came out as more of a strangled sob, and she hunkered down into her seat, miserable. “Anna…” Hearing her name from his lips was what did it. Great fat tears spilled out and then it was the ugliest of ugly cries, even worse than when Hans had left her alone in the house before she had to vacate the only home she had. Kristoff took her in his arms and she buried her head in his chest.</p><p>                The sun was finally rising and she forced herself to calm, to turn off the faucets and to take the next step. This is what adults do: they take another step, then another, even when it hurts to breathe. Like he had said, even if you have to break it down into one hour, one minute, one second, to get through it.</p><p>                “I’m sorry.” He pulled some fast food napkins from the glove box and pushed them into her hands. She scrubbed her face as best she could and sat facing forward again.</p><p>                “It’s time to go,” he said quietly, and stepped out of the car. She followed and he set her two suitcases on the curb, focusing intently on shutting the hatch. She balanced on the edge of the curb, heart thudding thickly in her chest. He finally looked at her, and his eyes mirrored that night they had watched <em>The Clock</em>, when he had been wrestling with something but hadn’t told her what. She watched him, waiting for him to say something, but instead he kissed the top of her head, stroking her hair. “Goodbye, Anna.” And then he was getting back into the car, and then he was leaving. Anna was glad they skipped breakfast, because it certainly would have come back up at that moment.</p><p>                The airport had small plastic waves bolted to the ceiling. When she walked under them, looking for her gate, they shimmered green and she realized they were supposed to be the northern lights. <em>How did I miss those before?</em> she wondered. She stopped and took a picture and nearly sent it to Kristoff right then, before remembering he was still driving home and it wouldn’t do to distract him.</p><p>                She did text him when she landed at LAX, to let him know she’d made it safely. “It’s 72 degrees here and I’m melting?” she sent with the thinking emoji. After half an hour, he responded with a picture of Sven in the snow. “❤ u both” she wrote. “❤ you” he responded.</p><p> </p><p>                She had asked to FaceTime him that evening, after she’d met Elsa at the airport and they’d settled into the Airbnb Elsa had booked for them to share. She really had thought of everything.</p><p>                “Hey,” he said, almost bashful. He was lying in bed.</p><p>                “Hey.”</p><p>                “Did you get settled in okay?”</p><p>                “Yeah, Elsa was there at the airport, she flew in at the same time, and she had a place already booked for us and everything. Who knew actually planning ahead would work?” He gave a genuine laugh and it perked her heart up a little.</p><p>                “Well, I mean, you not being able to plan ahead worked out for me in the end.”</p><p>                “I’ll have you know, Mr. Ranger Bjorgman, that I did plan ahead but someone went and canceled my reservation!”</p><p>                “Mother Nature is fickle like that.”</p><p>                “I think you two are in cahoots,” Anna groused. “How’s Sven? I didn’t give him a proper goodbye.”</p><p>                “He’s been looking for you everywhere.” Anna gave a small “Oh” and the guilt came rushing back. “But it’s okay,” Kristoff added quickly, “he’s resilient. So, uh, how is the business side of things going?”</p><p>                “I’m not too sure yet, actually. Today was more about us coming in and getting settled, and Elsa’s always on the phone or emailing with people. She said tomorrow we should be able to do the paperwork to get the shop back in my name, if all goes well.”</p><p>                “That’s great, Anna, that’s really great.” She studied his face as closely as she could through the small phone screen, and wished she had borrowed Elsa’s iPad so she could see him better. Just then, her sister knocked on the door before poking her head in.</p><p>                “Hey, ready for dinner?”</p><p>                “Yeah, just one sec.” Kristoff nodded, understanding. “Can I FaceTime you tomorrow?”</p><p>                “I go back to work tomorrow.”</p><p>                “Oh, that uniform…” Anna bit her lip and even in that small picture, she could see him blushing.</p><p>                “Uh, how about seven your time?” he offered. “I’ll still be in work clothes then, or we could try later –”</p><p>                “Nope, seven is great!” They said their goodbyes and she sighed before going into her camera roll and looking over every last picture she had of him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kristoff finally meets his neighbor, and Anna says a thing.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                The days went very, very slowly for Kristoff. Work was quiet, Sven was mopey, and the house was so silent it almost hurt his ears. He took to leaving the TV on until bedtime, just to keep himself sane. <em>How did I stand all this quiet before?</em></p>
<p>                The best part of the day was her call every night. Even if they couldn’t talk long because Elsa was calling for her or they had to meet with someone for some vague thing, he would take any chance he had to see her face. One night, after her call and when he was lying in bed, trying to sleep, he sent her the picture he’d taken of them at Ma’s cabins, when she was sleeping on his chest. His phone chimed a few minutes later and the heat rose in his cheeks when he saw she had sent a selfie from bed. It wasn’t even risqué, just her lying in bed, head on her pillow, with the slightest smile. Like what he would be looking at if she was there right then. He sent one back to her. She responded with a heart-eyed emoji and a firework emoji and he gave an embarrassed laugh, remembering Piccolo Pete.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Ten days after she had left, he came home from work and fetched the mail from the built-in slot next to the front door. As he was walking away, he heard something <em>thunk</em> in the mail slot and turned to see a postcard. He had been pretty certain he’d grabbed everything already? Plucking up the postcard, he saw it was emblazoned with “Greetings from California!” across the front. Anna. Turning it over, it only said one sentence: “Open the door.” If this was one of their in-jokes, he wasn’t getting it. He flipped the card over, looking over the front again, before turning it back over. The postcard looked like it had just been bought, not gone through the postal service for days. And no postmark. The front porch creaked slightly.</p>
<p>                He threw open the door and there she was, arms crossed and shivering but grinning. “A little slow on the uptake, aren’t you?” His mail scattered across the floor and he was scooping her up, pressing her close, making sure she was real and she was there. He felt her wiggling and looked up to see her waving at something. “I’m letting Ms. Gerda know it worked,” she explained, and he looked again and realized Anna was waving at a neighbor down the street, whose porch could just be seen from his front door.</p>
<p>                “Oh geez!” He put her down hastily.</p>
<p>                “It’s okay, she was in on it!” Anna explained, letting herself in. “I told her all about us and she let me sit with her until you came home, and she kept an eye on me to make sure I was okay. My stuff is still over there, we should go get it before it’s totally dark.”</p>
<p>                “Okay, quick question though: what is happening?”</p>
<p>                “Quick answer: I came back. Seriously, we need to get my things, I’ve already imposed on her too much.” And then she was back out the front door. He chased after her, not knowing what else to do, and then he was finally meeting his closest neighbor.</p>
<p>                “Ms. Gerda really is the nicest, isn’t she?” Anna gushed, picking her way back through the snow to Kristoff’s house. She was carrying a plate of oatmeal raisin cookies and he was carrying her suitcases yet again.</p>
<p>                “I’ve lived here four years and this was the first time I’ve met her,” he huffed. She certainly hadn’t left anything behind in LA.</p>
<p>                “I know, Ms. Gerda said she sees you come and go from work and that you seemed lonely, and she’s glad you found someone that will get you to socialize more.” She let them back in his house and carefully wiped her feet before squeaking into the kitchen to put the plate of cookies on the counter. Kristoff was about to open his mouth when a howl echoed through the house, and Sven came tearing down the stairs. Anna screamed and Kristoff could feel something thudding on the floor. He dropped her bags and ran into the kitchen to see Sven licking Anna’s face, standing on top of her, and she was sprawled on the ground, laughing. “This is what I get for not saying goodbye!” she gasped.</p>
<p>                “Sven!” He instantly heeled, backing off of Anna and sitting quietly. She sat up woozily, pushing her hair back.</p>
<p>                “I really am going to have to make you a cake to make it up to you, aren’t I?” she asked the dog, and his tail swished across the floor.</p>
<p>                “He’s really missed you,” Kristoff said, shutting and locking the front door and moving her luggage to the stairs. “He’s been sleeping on your bed.” Anna looked pained.</p>
<p>                “Have you really?” Sven whimpered and she hugged him. “I’m so sorry, buddy, I was a total jerk, huh?”</p>
<p>                “I’m glad you two have made up, I really am,” Kristoff said, “but can someone please tell me what’s going on here?”</p>
<p>                “Oh, yes, sorry!” Anna picked herself up off of the floor and dusted herself off. “I’m going to take you to dinner and tell you everything, my treat. Though you don’t mind driving, do you? Let me just wash the slobber off my face. I mean, before <em>you</em> slobber all over it.” She ran upstairs and he looked at Sven, who looked back at him and cocked his head.</p>
<p>                “You and me both, buddy.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>                Anna had made a reservation for them at the Highliner on the south side of town, and wouldn’t let him change out of his ranger uniform.</p>
<p>                “Apparently all of the fancy seafood places are closed for the season,” she explained, rolling her eyes. “So I’ll owe you in the summer. Sorry there aren’t really any meat-free options, but seafood is pretty okay, right?”</p>
<p>                “It’s fine, it’s great. I’m just still trying to recover from my shock and not knowing if I’ve actually lost my mind,” he said. Someone came to take their order and after their menus were cleared, she reached her hands across the table. He rested his hands in hers, dwarfing her small hands.</p>
<p>                “I couldn’t do it, Kristoff,” she said softly, staring at their hands.</p>
<p>                “Do what?”</p>
<p>                “I couldn’t stay. In LA. I went back and saw the same places I’d been going to forever, the places I lived and worked, and they were all just…empty to me. Even walking back into the bakery, my name back on everything, it wasn’t the same anymore.” He dared to feel some hope.</p>
<p>                “But you were gone so long.”</p>
<p>                “I still had things to do, I just came back here when they were done.” Their drinks arrived and she took a deep drink. “Oh, you guys have the best root beer,” she sighed, smacking her lips.</p>
<p>                “Well?”</p>
<p>                “Well what?”</p>
<p>                “Well what did you have to do?” he asked, fighting hard to keep his voice quiet. <em>My god, this woman sometimes!</em></p>
<p>                “Oh, well I sold the shop,” she shrugged, like it was nothing. Like it wasn’t her life’s work, and what sent her running up here in the first place, and what sent her back, leaving him alone.</p>
<p>                “Okay, I am clearly missing a lot of information here,” he sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. How could they talk every night and he still not know anything that was happening?</p>
<p>                “Sorry, that’s on me. I didn’t want to say anything until it was all done, I was afraid of jinxing it.” She pulled out her phone and opened the internet browser, then slid it across the table for him to see. It was a picture of him and Sven playing in the snow.</p>
<p>                “I don’t understand.”</p>
<p>                “Read the caption!” He scrolled down.</p>
<p>
  <strong>
    <em>pavlovasdog</em>
  </strong>
  <em> Hello friends, it’s Anna, your faithful pack leader. It’s been a time of intense turmoil and change, and I wanted to let you all know that I saw every comment, read every message, and completely understand any frustration or confusion you may have had. The person who attempted a hostile takeover of this shop is gone, in the trash where they belong. It was unexpected and ugly, but it inadvertently led to one of the greatest discoveries of my life. When I got my business back, there was some serious soul searching and I realized that there are other things in life that need my love and my attention now. There are also people who are willing to step up and give Pavlova’s Dog the love and attention it needs and deserves, and they will be introducing themselves to you shortly. I don’t see this as leaving, I’m just stepping down to let others step up. Please know I have loved every second of our time together, and will cherish it always. </em>
</p>
<p>                “I still don’t understand,” he said, and she sighed and tapped the back button on the browser. It went to the Pavlova’s Dog main Instagram page. She scrolled down to the posts, and there was one new image before the picture of Kristoff and Sven. She tapped on it, bringing up a picture of a burly, smiling man with sandy hair and a monster of a handlebar moustache, and a giant of a blond man who dwarfed Kristoff. A perky Jack Russell terrier was perched between them.</p>
<p>                “These are the new owners of Pavlova’s Dog. The Oakens.” A chorus of <em>What? How?</em> started chanting in Kristoff’s head. “Hans was trying to sell the shop to them when we intercepted him. I felt badly, canceling the deal when they were so eager, so we met over dinner and got to talking and they were so great, you’d love them. Anyway, they have a passion for the shop and concrete plans, amazing plans, really. And they have each other so it’s not everything on one person’s back, so we drew up our own agreement and it’s all theirs now. We worked the store together for a few days to show them the ropes and ease the customers into the change, because saying Hans ruffled a few feathers would be quite the understatement. And they agreed to let me post a goodbye before I handed over the controls.”</p>
<p>                He stared at her, still not sure if his thoughts were correct. “So you…flew back to stop your business from being sold, and took it back…to sell it?”</p>
<p>                “Yes.”</p>
<p>                “You left here, smacked a contract out of Hans’ hands, then picked it up and handed it over yourself?”</p>
<p>                “Well, that’s really simplified, but yes.”</p>
<p>                “You flew thirty-five hundred miles to sign papers.”</p>
<p>                “Kristoff, this isn’t hard!” Their food arrived and they were quiet until the server left.</p>
<p>                “I just want to make sure I have this totally right,” he explained. “Because when you left, I was under the impression that you weren’t really counting on coming back.” She had picked up her fork before setting it back down.</p>
<p>                “I was so torn when I left,” she admitted, not meeting his eyes. “I knew I had to take care of the shop and not let Hans win. I didn’t tell you, but my parents passed away when I was fifteen and Elsa was eighteen. She was about to go to college on a full scholarship and I was still in high school, and we couldn’t keep their house. So it sold, and we split the money, and she used her share to go to law school after getting her degree. I had to wait until I was eighteen for my half, but I worked, got my GED, kept working, and put everything into starting the bakery. So for a long time, that place was my home because it was all I had left of my parents.”</p>
<p>                “I had no idea.”</p>
<p>                “Yeah. That’s why I couldn’t let him just steal it away, it meant too much. It had been my entire life for so long. But it also killed me to leave you. And by the time I was on the plane, I knew I couldn’t stay in LA.”</p>
<p>                “You never said anything, though.”</p>
<p>                “I know, that was me trying to stay open? I mean, I really didn’t know that the Oakens were going to be so great, but once we met them and I saw the heart they’d bring to the shop, it all fell into place. They would do it justice. Elsa took some convincing, though.”</p>
<p>                “She didn’t want you to come back?”</p>
<p>                “She didn’t know I’d already decided to come back. And at first she didn’t understand why she’d done all this work to get the shop back, only for me to sign it away, but I got her to come around and see where I was coming from.”</p>
<p>                “How did you convince her?”</p>
<p>                “I showed her a picture of you shirtless.”</p>
<p>                “Anna!” His fork clattered loudly against his plate and he nearly knocked over his drink, face red.</p>
<p>                “I’m kidding! I don’t think she even likes men. I just told her how I feel about you, and she paved the way.”</p>
<p>                “What did you tell her?”</p>
<p>                “Are you just fishing for compliments now?” She squinted at him.</p>
<p>                “I kinda think I deserve some?”</p>
<p>                “Oh fine, but can we please eat? I’m starving, and I’d think being fawned over would give you an appetite.”</p>
<p>                “I would love to be fawned over,” he grumbled, picking up his fork again. She shoved his plate over, then slid her plate across the table before moving seats to be next to him.</p>
<p>                “Is that a start?”</p>
<p>                “Not really. I need some solid fawning.” He didn’t exactly enjoy dangling her like this, it wasn’t really him. But it also didn’t feel <em>bad</em>.</p>
<p>                “Ugh, fine,” she rolled her eyes. “I told Elsa that I’d fallen in love, really fallen in love, and told her about volcanoes. I said I finally saw what else life had to offer and I had a chance at living the life I’ve always wanted to have, and it would be stupid to let that chance go. And I said that I had left home and I needed to go back, because I’m not really me unless I have you.” She tucked in to her seafood pasta, twirling a huge amount onto her fork and somehow cramming it all in on the first try. “She said you must be pretty special, and set up the contract with the Oakens, and even booked my flight back here while she finished up down there.” Kristoff looked at his plate. The food looked amazing and he was sure it tasted even better, but he had to take a minute because he wasn’t sure he would be able to experience anything else until her words finished soaking in.</p>
<p>                Anna, meanwhile, ate like someone was going to snatch her plate away in the next ten seconds. “Hey, save room for that chocolate skillet thing with ice cream on top, that is definitely calling my name,” she said around bites of food. He smiled at this ridiculous, absolutely nuts woman and was finally able to eat.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kristoff says his stupid!!! And it's not stupid at all.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                She wasn’t wrong about the dessert at all, but then again, was she ever? Well, maybe the time she chose lemon meringue over chocolate silk pie, but that was one time. Kristoff seemed to agree with her choice as well, because he confessed his love to a dessert.</p><p>                “Oh my god, I love you,” he gushed as the skillet was set in front of them.</p><p>                “You two need some privacy?”</p><p>                “Be right back, I gotta buy a ring to put on this,” he said, moving like he was going to leave his seat.</p><p>                “You leave, it’ll be gone by the time you get back,” Anna threatened, and took a chunk out of the vanilla ice cream and hot brownie.</p><p>                “I’m not dumb enough to let that happen twice,” he said, and she turned to see him looking at her, not the brownie skillet. <em>Why did I have to take such a big bite?</em> she agonized, hurrying to get rid of the huge amount of sweet in her mouth. He glanced at her mouth and gave a lopsided smile before gently wiping up a smear of melted ice cream and leaning close to her.</p><p>                “I think I’ll wait until I’m home and can take off this uniform for my dessert, I wouldn’t want to get any stains on it,” he crooned in her ear, probably trying to be sexy.</p><p>                “You talking about the melty ice cream, or Piccolo Pete?” she responded with a mischievous look. His eyes went wide and his cheeks flushed instantly before he recovered.</p><p>                “Why not both?”</p><p>                “I can definitely handle both tonight.” He might have been sweating, it was hard to say. She hacked another large bite with her spoon and jammed it into his mouth. He wasn’t so great with words, but his actions really did make up for it. “A good thing to say right here would have been ‘this tastes almost as good as you,’” she whispered in his ear. He loudly asked for the check.</p><p> </p><p>                Anna entered his bedroom wearing nothing but his ranger hat and a blanket.</p><p>                “You said you were going to the bathroom,” he laughed.</p><p>                “I did. And I also went downstairs to get your hat because I could. What do you think, should I use my newfound freedom to go to Ranger School?” She struck what she thought was a ranger pose, chest thrust out and arms akimbo.</p><p>                “While you would look great in a government uniform, there’s no actual Ranger School.”</p><p>                “Oh, well then never mind. Hey, but I did have a crazy idea.” Anna sat on the edge of the bed, looking over her shoulder at him. Kristoff leaned forward and began kissing her bare shoulder and she giggled, shrugging him off.</p><p>                “You had a crazy idea? Since when?”</p><p>                “Har har. But seriously, I’ve been thinking a lot about when we went up to the cabins and saw the lights.”</p><p>                “Me too.”</p><p>                “Well, I was thinking…I can’t become an astronaut, but what if I got a pilot’s license?”</p><p>                “That’s – that’s actually a pretty great idea,” he mused. “All you’d need is a private pilot license, those are pretty easy to get. I mean, unless you were planning on flying commercial jets.”</p><p>                “You think I could do it?”</p><p>                “Of course you could! I’d even count it under the astronaut section of your princess-astronaut-wife-mom-dog farmer résumé.” She laughed.</p><p>                “Great, now I just need the princess, the wife, the mom, and the dog farmer to go.”</p><p>                “I could help you with the rest, if you wanted.”  A flush crept up her cheeks. The volcano was going to blow again.</p><p>                “All of them?”</p><p>                “Mmm-hmm.”</p><p>                “Starting with which one?”</p><p>                “Whichever one you want.” The flush turned into full-on flames, and Anna had to put a hand to her cheek to make sure she wasn’t actually boiling to the touch.</p><p>                “Don’t tease,” she chided softly, and dared to look at him. He certainly didn’t look teasing; he looked adorable, sitting in bed wearing nothing but the sheets, and with the sweetest, most earnest look on his face.</p><p>                “I’m not. I don’t ever want to see you leave again, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes. If Joe and Alice can take that leap of faith together after two days, then I can too,” he said, referencing <em>The Clock</em>.</p><p>                “Is that how you see it? As a leap of faith?”</p><p>                “Well, yeah. If you decide to marry someone, you’re tying your fate with theirs. And you’re putting your faith in them by giving that much of yourself to them and trusting them to not screw it up. I mean, to me, faith is love, and love is faith.” Anna sat on the edge of the bed, stunned, for what felt like hours. Here he’d been complaining about trying to not say stupid things since they had met, and then he went and said one of the most beautiful things she’d ever heard in her <em>life</em>? She must have been sitting there for quite a while, because he poked her, calling her name, and looked worried.</p><p>                “I said, are you okay?” he asked.</p><p>                “Hmm? Yeah, I’m just – was that? Because it seemed like you…” And now, for once, she was the one fumbling.</p><p>                “Uh, yes? I mean, take as much time as you need to think about it –”</p><p>                “Yes.”</p><p>                “Decisive, I like it.” He did a double take. “Wait, what?”</p><p>                “Yes.”</p><p>                “Just like that.”</p><p>                “Yes!”</p><p>                “Oh, okay,” he drew out the word, “I actually didn’t plan this because I don’t have a ring or anything so I’m really sorry but we can do this over –” Anna grabbed Kristoff by the shoulders and shook him.</p><p>                “Kristoff! It’s fine, it’s perfect. What you said was perfect, and if you can promise to say something like that even once a year, I think it just might work.”</p><p>                “I’ll try, I promise,” he laughed, and she peppered him with kisses because he really did deserve them.</p><p> </p><p>                They were falling asleep much later, him spooning her, when he squeezed her hand and mumbled “Hey.”</p><p>                “Hmm?”</p><p>                “You said your things were in storage?”</p><p>                “Yeah?”</p><p>                “Why don’t we get them shipped up here.” Anna had been so close to sleep, but this dragged her back towards wakefulness.</p><p>                “Really?”</p><p>                “Anna, I only have like five pieces of furniture, and they came with the place. And you live here, too. My palace is your palace. Let’s finally make this place a home.” She smiled and squeezed his hand.</p><p>                “That would be nice, I’ll work on that tomorrow. But I was also thinking, maybe we should look into getting our own place?”</p><p>                “Some place big enough for our six kids,” he sighed, burying his face in her hair.</p><p>                “You really are gunning for a hockey team, aren’t you?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Sorry it's so short! But it's fluffy. Also, dirty-in-public Anna is my favorite.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The floofiest of fluff, my friends! Thank you so much for reading, and for your comments, and for caring.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                Elsa and Anna were sitting on a deck at the Seward Windsong Lodge, sipping champagne and soaking in the utterly magnificent view: verdant green, a burbling creek, and craggy peaks still spotted with snow in early June.</p>
<p>                “I have to say, Anna, you really did it this time. When you plan,” Elsa’s eyes went wide before she mimed her head exploding, nearly spilling her drink on herself, “you really go all out.”</p>
<p>                “This is why I usually don’t plan: it’s too much for the average human being.” They both chuckled and continued drinking. “It really is amazing, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>                “It’s unreal. It’s not what I would have guessed for your wedding at all, but as soon as I saw it all together, I couldn’t imagine it any differently.”</p>
<p>                “I never would have thought it, either,” her sister admitted, staring at the mountains thoughtfully. “But I guess that’s also why it works?”</p>
<p>                “It works because you can somehow always turn lemons into the sweetest lemonade.” Elsa raised her glass and Anna toasted her, a rosy glow across her cheeks.</p>
<p>                “I’m so glad you’re my bridesmaid slash maid of honor,” Anna said, maybe slurring a little. “And thank you for mom’s earrings, they’re just so…” Anna set down her empty champagne flute and gave an exaggerated shrug, “so perfect. I always loved them.”</p>
<p>                “She would have wanted you to have them. I’m sorry I kept them for so long, I thought – I was uncharitable in how I looked at you sometimes,” Elsa finished diplomatically. “But seeing how you’ve changed and grown since we lived together has been a real learning experience.”</p>
<p>                “I had to,” Anna said simply. “I wasn’t a great mind like you, Elsa, I had to use the money from mom and dad’s house wisely, and the bakery was it for me. Not school. It took everything to keep it going and out of debt, but when it mattered most, it paid off.”</p>
<p>                “Two hundred and fifty thousand is a great payoff for a small business. Have you told Kristoff yet?” Anna giggled.</p>
<p>                “No, I was going to wait until we found the dream home.”</p>
<p>                “He never asked how much you sold it for?” Elsa looked shocked with a small mixture of drunk.</p>
<p>                “No, can you believe him? Though if I told him, he might make me quit working.”</p>
<p>                “I really don’t think you’d let him do that,” Elsa said with an arched brow.</p>
<p>                “Well no, but I mean he’d want kids even faster than he already does. And I like working for Dr. Maren, I really do! Sven loves her. Every dog in southern Alaska loves her. Speaking of, have you two met?”</p>
<p>                “I don’t think I have, but I’m a little –” But Anna was already up and dragging Elsa over to where a lovely brunette with large, dark eyes was sitting by herself, sipping a glass of wine.</p>
<p>                “Hey Doc, are we interrupting?” Anna asked, sitting down. She yanked Elsa into a seat and her sister managed to recover her grace enough to not fall out of the chair she was pulled into.</p>
<p>                “Hi Anna, not at all,” Dr. Maren smiled. “I was just absorbing the view.” She turned to Elsa. “I’ve lived here my entire life and it never ceases to amaze me.”</p>
<p>                “I can believe it,” Elsa responded, pink cheeked. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced, I’m drunk – Elsa! I’m Elsa, Anna’s sister, so sorry.”</p>
<p>                “Don’t apologize, she seems to be a wonderful sister to have,” Dr. Maren laughed, and took Elsa’s outstretched hand. “She’s certainly a joy to work with.”</p>
<p>                “Aww shucks,” Anna drawled, tipsy. “Doc Maren is trying to get me to become a vet with benefits,” she added, explaining to Elsa.</p>
<p>                “Anna knows so much about canine nutrition already from her time running the bakery,” the doctor clarified, “and I’ve just been asking her if she’s considered becoming officially licensed as a nutritionist. It does take veterinary school and additional training, but if she really does like that line of work, it’s something to consider.” Elsa propped her chin in her hand, watching Dr. Maren intently.</p>
<p>                “I had no idea that was a thing,” Elsa said. “I think she said something about you two working on energy bars for dogs, did I hear that right?” Anna was bored and abruptly stood up, searching for her husband. She saw him across the deck, tie loosened and hair mussed, a nearly empty pint glass in his hand. Sven was lolling at his feet, tired from his long day as man’s best man.</p>
<p>                “’Scuse me, ladies, I’ve got a husband to husband.” Her sister and the vet continued as if they hadn’t heard her. Kristoff spotted her heading towards him and the goofiest grin broke across his face, making Anna giggle. He reached his hand out to her, ring glinting in the golden light, and she rushed to him, taking his hand and wrapping his arm around her. He continued talking with his foster family and the Oakens and she was content to rest her head on his chest, feeling him breathe and listening to the rumble of his voice when he spoke.</p>
<p>                It was nearly dark outside, and the temperature dropping, when she thought to look for Elsa again. Her sister didn’t really know anyone outside of her and Kristoff, and Anna didn’t want her to feel neglected or lonely. She had a hard time making friends, in Anna’s mind. It took her a moment to realize that Elsa had never moved, and was still sitting at the same table with Dr. Maren. Elsa looked to have sobered up, which she was probably happy for – <em>what’s the shame in being a little tipsy, especially at your sister’s wedding?</em> Anna thought. It’s pretty much expected when you’re the only bridesmaid. Anna noticed Dr. Maren shiver and rub her arms before Elsa gestured and they moved to go inside. She watched through the glass doors as the women settled into a plush couch near the fireplace, still deep in conversation. <em>Well this was an unexpected development!</em> But if it is what she thought it was, all the better. They were both so serious and so locked away inside of themselves, they needed the right people to truly open up. Like Kristoff had.</p>
<p>                She looked up at him and he smiled down at her and she could nearly see his glow, he was so contented.</p>
<p>                “You doing okay?” he murmured into her hair, kissing her braided updo.</p>
<p>                “I’m great,” she sighed, giving him a squeeze.</p>
<p>                An hour later they were headed to their room with Sven trailing behind them. Anna made a point to stop by the couch where Elsa and Dr. Maren were still sitting and conversing, to lean down and hug her sister, kissing her cheek.</p>
<p>                “Sorry, just wanted to say goodnight. It’s okay if I don’t kiss you, Doc?”</p>
<p>                “I’m counting on you <em>not</em> kissing me,” she chuckled.</p>
<p>                “Well I won’t kiss you, but I am really glad you came today, it meant a lot. I hope it wasn’t a total bust for you?” The vet glanced at Elsa.</p>
<p>                “It certainly wasn’t a bust, Anna. Thank you for inviting me, it’s been a beautiful day. Goodnight.”</p>
<p>                Kristoff was carefully helping her out of her dress when he chuckled. “Were you playing matchmaker with your sister and your boss?”</p>
<p>                “You saw that too? Crazy chemistry!”</p>
<p>                “I saw a plotting look in your eye. There we go.” He held up the dress until Anna could take hold of it and finish slipping out, wriggling loose and getting it onto its padded hanger and garment bag.</p>
<p>                “Hey, I just introduced them. I had no idea they’d end up talking for hours straight. What do people even talk about for that long?”</p>
<p>                “Excuse me, Miss Let-Me-Take-Three-Hours-To-Explain-All-Ten-Seasons-Of-The-X-Files-To-You?”</p>
<p>                “Excuse you, it’s Missus now, and there were eleven seasons of <em>The X-Files</em>. I see I’m going to have to spend my wedding night schooling you.” Anna freed herself of her gown’s underskirt and even with her back turned, could feel Kristoff’s open-mouthed stare.</p>
<p>                “Please do.” She took her time hanging up the skirts, waiting for him to become impatient enough to come to her. It took two minutes. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and she turned his left hand to line up their rings. His was a broad white gold band with an inset of nephrite jade, hers a center stone of the same Alaskan jade with small diamonds flanking it, on a thin white gold band.</p>
<p>                “I think the best idea you ever had was us wearing the northern lights,” she said. He had taken her to a souvenir shop and showed her the jade mined in the peninsula they called home, and told her that the green stones reminded him of the lights, and suggested they design rings that incorporated the local gems. While it was a brilliant idea in and of itself, it was this cleverness and thoughtfulness that showed Anna once and for all that he was the right one.</p>
<p>                “Every now and then I get things right.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>1. The Seward Windsong Lodge is near Kristoff's house, and overlooks Kenai Fjord Park. If you look at the second picture on <a href="https://www.wedding-spot.com/venue/13110/Seward-Windsong-Lodge/">this page</a>, it's what I was imagining Anna and Elsa were looking at while talking.<br/>2. Honeymaren is Dr. Honey Maren, veterinarian extraordinaire, who has been taking care of Sven since Kristoff got him. Anna went along to one of Sven's appointments and talked herself into a job as an assistant, as only Anna can. And yes, energy bars for dogs are a thing.<br/>3. I like to imagine Anna as someone who loves watching creepy things but hates being scared, so she would love <i>The X-Files</i> but couldn't watch certain episodes alone.<br/>4. Alaskan jade is real! And really does come from the Seward Peninsula, where Kristoff lives. It's been Alaska's official gemstone since 1968. Anna's ring is modeled after <a href="https://www.dhresource.com/albu_322036671_00-1.0x0/925-silver-and-nephrite-jade-rings-for-men.jpg"> this one</a>, and Kristoff's is similar to<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/3d/05/e83d059ecc6ff16444fc9290e117f94c.jpg">this ring</a>.</p>
<p>Aaaaaaand...nothing else will ever be posted on AO3. I have a bunch of other works written but no one likes what I write, so I'll just keep it to myself. Thanks to the folks that said nice things for this story and followed along.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It took about two weeks in February to write &amp; edit this, but I'll be posting a chapter every couple of days or so. Hopefully someone likes it!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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